Question for written answer E-001744/2021 to the Commission Rule 138 Sylwia Spurek (Verts/ALE), Kim Van Sparrentak (Verts/ALE), Chiara Gemma (NI), José Gusmão (The Left), Jarosław Duda (PPE), Biljana Borzan (S&D), Rosanna Conte (ID), Tanja Fajon (S&D), Estrella Durá Ferrandis (S&D), Loucas Fourlas (PPE), Radka Maxová (S&D), Miriam Lexmann (PPE), Ádám Kósa (NI), Mónica Silvana González (S&D), Stelios Kympouropoulos (PPE), Milan Brglez (S&D), Tilly Metz (Verts/ALE), Katrin Langensiepen (Verts/ALE) Subject: Deinstitutionalisation of support services for persons with disabilities On 2 October 2015, the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities published its concluding observations on the initial report of the European Union on the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). The committee raised concerns that across the EU, persons with disabilities still live in institutions rather than in their local communities, while one of the main purposes of the CRPD, envisaged in Articles 1 and 19, is to guarantee all persons with disabilities the right to live independently. The committee noted that the European Structural and Investment Funds continue to be used in Member States to maintain residential institutions or to invest in new residential settings that remain institutional in their way of functioning. The committee recommended that the EU stop allowing such investments to continue and instead invest ambitiously in the deinstitutionalisation process. In the light of the above: 1. What concrete steps has the Commission taken to suspend, withdraw or recover payments used for the expansion or redevelopment of institutional care? 2. What is it doing to ensure that EU funds are used strictly for the deinstitutionalisation process? 3. What is its assessment of the pace of the deinstitutionalisation process in the EU? PE691.732v01-00.