We delivered our open letter at the European ParliamentAmong others, Marthe Diomande, literacy learner at Lire et Écrire, gave a poignant account of the experience of people with literacy needs: You go to the bank, they ask you to go to the terminal, you start to panic, everyone’s looking at you. The shame, the panic... it’s unbearable. You feel rejected, abandoned and useless to society. We no longer have a private life, because we’re dependent on our children or strangers to help us.
The event was sponsored by members of the European Parliament: Estelle Ceulemans (S&D), David Cormand (The Greens) and Catharina Martins (The Left). All three received a copy of the open letter and gave us encouraging feedbacks.
A European Commission representative was also present, Jiri Svarc (head of unit Social Rights and Inclusion, DG EMPL). Mr. Svarc showed understanding for our concern and mentioned that the upcoming Anti-Poverty Strategy will include measures to fight against digital exclusion. He also mentioned the EC was increasingly aware of the issues caused by digitalisation of services.
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Presentation of the Right to Offline open letter
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Extract, by Louise Culot, Lire et Écrire.
Subtitles available in English and in French.
We also had an excellent press coverage:
- The open letter was published in Belgian national newspaper Le Soir: Tout le monde doit avoir accès aux services essentiels, sans passer nécessairement par le numérique
- We had a full page in Spanish national newspaper El Pais: Más del 40% de los europeos carece de habilidades digitales para gestiones ‘online’: “No ponen facilidades al ciudadano, sino barreras”
- A feature was aired on Belgian national radio channel RTBF La Première: Analphabétisme numérique (at 7min57)
We will now take a little time to reflect on the follow-ups and next steps to pursue our action at European level.
Last but not least there is an important initiative taken by the Belgian Human Rights League to file a complaint before the European Committee of Social Rights on potential discrimination caused by digitalised essential services. Along with other organisations, we will help The Human Rights League to collect testimonies / cases and build a solid case.
We will keep you informed about our next actions.
Thank you again for your support.