Who directs the assistance?

The campaign’s demands placed personal assistance within the right to live in the community. ENIL argued that support should follow the decisions of the person receiving it, rather than determine where that person can live or how they spend their day. Its proposals asked European institutions to establish conditions for assistance consistent with the UN disability convention, provide adequate funding and monitor funded projects. These were the movement’s demands for policy change, not a new assistance entitlement created by the demonstration. [2]

Freedom of movement needs practical support

One concrete demand concerned people moving between European countries. ENIL asked for measures that would allow disabled people to retain access to personal assistance when they moved to live, work or study elsewhere in the EU. The point connects a familiar European freedom with an often overlooked service: an opportunity abroad is difficult to use if essential daily support cannot accompany it. The demands document proposed an EU recommendation on personal assistance; it did not establish a system for automatically transferring national assistance budgets. [2]

A protest with space for shared knowledge

The march formed part of a three-day gathering from 26 to 28 September. Its programme combined workshops on personal assistance, deinstitutionalisation and rights monitoring with employment and youth discussions. A parliamentary hearing and a final conference brought different forms of advocacy into the same event. ENIL’s subsequent feedback request confirms the workshop, hearing and conference dates, including the hybrid format of the closing conference. The gathering therefore offered several routes into participation: public protest, exchanging practical experience and addressing institutions. [3][4]

A record of demands, not a claim of completed reform

ENIL’s account of the march identified four priorities: access to personal assistance, faster deinstitutionalisation, a smaller employment gap and an end to EU funding for institutions. These priorities connect support services with decisions about public money and opportunity. The organisers’ reports document mobilisation and the proposals presented in September 2022. They do not, by themselves, show that governments subsequently delivered those changes. The contribution of the Freedom Drive was to make the movement’s expectations visible and give people using support a collective platform from which to press for them. [1][2]