Fact Sheet

 

There is no doubt that there are some good achievements in addressing issues related to ethnic and religious minorities in Europe . But even the most optimistic of the politicians and bureaucrats of the European Institutions and Intergovernmental Organisations dealing with Human Rights would refrain from talking about significant progress when it comes to Roma and most of the Islamic minorities. Extreme nationalism, social exclusion and racism are far from being under control and arguably the Roma are in the worst situation of any other European ethnic group.

 

At this moment (January 2007) the European Union (EU) has a number of significant resolutions on Roma (7 of the European Parliament[1] and 3 of the European Union Council[2]), excellent European reports[3], over a hundred of documents of the European Commission (EC) focused on or including Roma and there has been a good number of Joint Inclusion Memorandums (JIM) and National Action Plans (NAP) with Roma focused chapters.

 

The European Commission(EC) has encouraged the new Member States with substantial Romani communities to include Roma in their National Strategic Reference Framework (NSRF)[4].Those strategies set the most important development policy objectives and priorities to be supported under the main funding European opportunity the Structural Funds.

 

On top of these documents proving the acute problems faced by Roma since 1984 one can find some structures within the EC focused or targeting Roma related issues.

 

In December 1999 at the Summit of Helsinki, under the impression of the pending eastwards Enlargement of the EU the Finish Presidency put a particular stress on the situation of the Roma and Sinti. A special working party on issues related to Enlargement issues was established at the Council level, the so-called COCEN Group. The following paragraph was included in the official document which signaled the fact that the Group was supposed to pay attention to Roma related issues:

 

“The European Council reaffirms the importance of equal enjoyment of human rights by all individuals. Special attention should be paid to the improvement of the situation of those groups which do not form a majority in any State, including the Roma. The European Union is committed to working to achieve this objective together with the Council of Europe and the OSCE.”

 

An Interservice Group was established in early 2004, and an Expert  High Level Group on Social and Labour Market Integration of Ethnic Minorities that has as one of its priorities the Roma in January 2006. Also in 2005 the Group of Commissioners focused on fundamental rights named the Commissioner of Directorate General (DG) Employment and Social Affairs Vladimir Spidla as the Roma responsible Commissioner as the group targeted the “anti-discrimination, equal opportunities and the social integration of minority groups”[5].

 

Better awareness within the European Commission coupled with professionalism and dedication of some people within DG Regional Policy, DG Employment and Social Affair and DG Enlargement lead to increased funding going towards Roma related projects and some good practices.

 

A scheme of Roma internships was established within the European Commission that trains 10 Roma per year in Brussels and a call for tender for establishing a European Roma Network has been launched in 2005. In 2007 the grant was given to the European Roma and Travelers Forum.

 

This is far from all, the European Parliament has since 2004, 2 very active Roma elected members from Hungary and at least another 40 pro-Roma MEPs. The non EU Intergovernmental Organisations have been also quite active. The Council of Europe in Strasbourg has produced more than five hundred Roma related documents since 1984 and has a Roma focused division within its structures, the OSCE has adopted the Action Plan for Roma and Sinti and has appointed since 1999 a senior Roma advisor. The UN had adopted a Roma specific document-the General Recommendation 27 in 2000.  In 2003, nine countries out of which 5 are members of the European Union joined what it looked as one of the most promising political projects in the Central and Eastern Europe, the Decade of Roma Inclusion(started in 2005) an initiative strongly supported by the World Bank and the OSI.

 

All these would seem more than enough to bring about the dramatic change needed by the European Roma. I argue here that despite seemingly perfectly prepared Europe is yet no able to provide a basis for hope when it comes to the betterment of the Roma situation.