EU Action on Roma Integration

In the March plenary session in Strasbourg, MEPs met to discuss the situation of Europe’s 10 million Roma, which is Europe’s largest ethnic minority, prior to an upcoming Roma summit, to be held under the Spanish Presiency of the Council. Discrimination, violence against Roma, and unequal access to services were some topics touched upon in the debate.

Hungarian MEP Kinga Göncz (S&D) highlighted the role of the Roma Decade (2005-2015), which chagned the issue from a problem of new member states and candidate countries, to an issue that the EU can take action on. She said that "we are missing concrete steps on the EU, national and regional levels. Regional Fund regulations need amending to tackle the Roma question on a more complex level".

The Parliament also has a rapporteur for an upcoming EU strategy on Roma inclusion, Hungarian MEP Lívia Járóka (EPP) who is of Roma origin. In her opinion, the social inclusion of Roma is more than a moral issue, but is also in the financial interest of all EU Member States. Járóka calls for educational and labour market integration "since the proportion of the Roma within the active population which carries the social security system on its shoulder is growing steadily and there is a huge potential in the unemployed population". "We have learned from the intergovernmental initiatives of the past few years that broad political slogans will never become reality without sanctions and obligations. The EU as a community can provide the necessary leverage to force the participants to comply with their own pledges", the Hungarian Roma MEP stressed.

Below is the text of the oral questions presented by the Socialists and Democrats group and the Greens/EFA.

"European structural and pre-accession funds offer considerable opportunities to promote Roma inclusion. However, it appears that their impact on the socio-economic situation of Roma has so far been limited. What preliminary conclusions does the Commission draw from ongoing evaluations in this regard? What measures will the Commission take to ensure that revisions of operational programmes and source allocation procedures reflect the priority attached to promoting Roma inclusion? How will the Commission ensure that the Common Basic Principles on Roma Inclusion are fully taken into account in such revisions? What are the possible legislative/regulative tools to be introduced by the Commission to guarantee (as conditionality) equal opportunities for Roma when European funds are used?

Roma face both explicit and implicit discrimination, including alarming forms of racist violence, hate speech, living and educational segregation and forced evictions, but also less visible discrimination via unequal access to public services and social provisions. What measures does the Commission propose to tackle both visible and invisible forms of discrimination against Roma?"

On 24 March 2010, the European Parliament adopted a Resolution on the social inclusion of the Roma people. The resolution was tabled by all seven EP political groups and adopted by 572 votes in favour to 28 against, with 23 abstentions. MEPs called for action, stating that to date progress has been "unsatisfactory". In addition, policy commitments need to emerge from the second European Roma summit. The resolutions also emphasises that the Parliament has been calling for a Roma inclusion strategy since 2008. The Parliament criticises the "recent rise of anti-Gypsyism in several EU Member States", and condems the forced repatriation of Roma to countrieswhere they might face homelessness and discrimination. MEPs highlighted the need for action in providing education, housing, employment and access to healthcare for the Roma population, as well as facilitating political participation.

The resolution calls for the new Commissioners to prioritise Roma-related issues in their policy dossiers and for them to take a horizontal approach. Another measure urged for is a "complex development programme, that targets simultaneously all related policy areas and makes immediate intervention possible in ghetto areas struggling with serious structural disadvantages. MEPs argued that antidiscrimination measures alone are not sufficient. Finally, the social impact of pre-accession funds should be evaluated and local authorities need to be encouraged to optomise available structural funds.

On 25 March 2010, the Greens/EFA group in the European Parliament released a press release in preparation for the Second Roma Summit and after the Resolution was adopted by the Parliament. Hélène Flautre (MEP France) called for Member States to discontinue the use of readmission agreements to send Roma individuals back to Kosovo, where they are sent to Roma camps that are contaminated with lead, as the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights was able to show. As 2010 is the EU Year to Combat Poverty, Flautre calls for use of structural funds to help eliminate poverty, and for the Roma Summit to be a turning point in the fight against discrimination of Roma.

Nicole Kiil-Nielsen (MEP France) welcomes the adoption of the Resultion but regrets the lack of gender perspective. Problems that Roma women have to face are not covered in the Resolution, for example unwanted pregnancy. According to Médecins du Monde 43% of Roma women have had an abortion by the age of 22. The average age of the first pregnancy is 17 and only 10% of Roma women have access to contraception. Kiil-Neilsen calls for gender-mainstreaming in all policies, and particularly in public health.

For Further Information

 Parliamentary question on the Social Inclusion of Roma
 Plight of Europe’s 10 million Roma discussed Tuesday afternoon
 Roma inclusion: the EU and Member States should step up their efforts

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