EU: paradoxes in funds system for autism

Some specialists in the field of autism (both NGO activists, doctors, government officials and people from the academic world working for people with autism) established a network across Europe in order to create an European Autism Information System (EAIS), a database that would monitor the prevalence and incidence of people with autism in the European Union (I was invited to be a member of this network representing the SYNAPSIS Foundation in Poland). Not only there is no such a common data base on a European level, but as a meeting in September 2006 in Luxembourg showed, only few countries in Europe have such a database on a national level. The network wanted to receive funding from the E.U. to create such a data base but such the E.U response was: The E.U. does not want to fund large projects for people with autism until it is convinced that it is really an epidemic. At the same time, however, it will not fund the projects that will try to find out the estimated number of people with autism in the E.U. The participants of the project as well as other organizations working for people with autism found them themselves in a vicious circle. And this is not the only paradox faced by nonprofit organizations trying to help people with autism. One of the constant problems while applying for various grants is proving that organizations abide by the E.U. requirement of so called gender-equality index, therefore that they help the same number of boys and girls. The E.U. officials cannot understand that there are at least five times as many boys with autism than girls, and attempts to help the same number of boys and girls would have to mean leaving out some of the boys with very serious problems, while helping some girls with only light disabilities. Maybe some E.U. officials should look a little beyond the letter of the laws regulations and think about the spirit of them as well as notice some paradoxes they are creating?