The Disability Dimension of the New European Bauhaus: The ‘Soft’ Route to Embedding Accessibility for Persons with Disabilities in the European Green Deal

Adopted in 2021 under the banner of the European Green Deal (EDG), the New European Bauhaus (NEB) is an initiative aimed at implementing the green transition within the built environment. In particular, the NEB provides a framework for collaboration and funding for projects that are ‘sustainable, beautiful and inclusive’. While somewhat overlooked within the ongoing legal debate on the EDG because of its soft and multifaceted nature, the NEB has been a significant facet of EU sustainability policies. This paper contends that the NEB has also proven important in the promotion of disability rights and presents some of the interim findings of a strand of research conducted within the project ‘Protecting the Right to Culture of Persons with Disabilities and Enhancing Cultural Diversity through European Union Law: Exploring New Paths - DANCING’, funded by the European Research Council (ERC). This paper particularly posits that the NEB has fostered access to the built environment and implemented the wide-ranging accessibility obligations stemming from the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). Additionally, the NEB presents a highly participatory nature, which maximizes inclusion of persons with disabilities in design and building processes. In that connection, it embeds the participatory principle that underpins the CRPD. Further, this paper highlights the inherent link between accessibility and sustainability in EU policies.