The Council took stock of progress on a proposal to
make websites more accessible. Under the draft directive,
EU-standardised accessibility features would become mandatory for
certain types of public sector bodies' websites. A report
prepared by the Italian presidency sets out the work
accomplished thus far in the Council working party.
Better business conditions and easier web
use: a harmonised set of
accessibility rules will help website developers to offer their
products and services across the EU without extra production costs
and other difficulties resulting from different national approaches
in the sector. This should improve the functioning of the internal
market and contribute to growth and competitiveness.
Certain principles and techniques that make web
content more usable are to be applied when creating websites. This
will benefit all users, especially people with disabilities, older
people and those with temporary disabilities such as a broken hand.
Moreover, it is particularly important for the public sector to
make its websites more accessible so that they can extend their
reach and fulfil their public tasks.
Work in the Council:
during the working party discussions, a number of changes were made
to the proposal.
- scope: the scope has
been widened to cover all public sector websites in their
entirety. This implies the deletion of a number of other parts
of the proposal, including the Annex (although an illustrative list
of websites covered could still prove useful), as well as minor
consequential changes throughout the text. On the other hand, it
is not proposed to extend the scope to
cover websites published by private entities. However, there is an
issue regarding websites supported by public funds or published by
public-private partnerships;
- less red-tape: the
proposal requires Member States to take measures to promote and
monitor the application of these rules. Mindful of red tape, the
presidency text requires member states to monitor compliance with
the rules periodically, instead of continuously as suggested by the
Commission. Similarly, the annual reporting obligation proposed by
the Commission is to be replaced by less frequent
reporting;
- standards: Article 5 has
been changed to reflect the existence of EN 301 549. This standard
now exists and Article 5 provides that compliance with that
standard in itself establishes a presumption of conformity with
Article 3. EN 301 549 contains accessibility requirements intended
for public procurement. However, the focus on public procurement
would not appear to pose a problem for making the relevant parts of
it applicable also for this Directive, as long as the content of
the standard is suitable for that. However, the parts of the
standard relevant for this Directive should be
identified;
- deadlines: the current
compromise text suggests that once the directive has entered into
force, Member States will have two years in which to adopt national
provisions so as to comply with the directive. The web
accessibility requirements will be applicable three years from the
entry into force of the directive;
- implementing acts: the
implementing act in Article 7(4) has been replaced by Commission
guidelines. All the Articles concerning the exercise of
delegation and committee have been deleted.
Next steps: the Italian
presidency intends to continue work on the proposal during the
remainder of its term. Its aim is to enable the Council to start
talks with the European Parliament, so that a deal could be struck
under the next presidency.