Brussels, 24/05/2011 (Agence Europe) - The cultural diversity and the credibility of the Roma draw attention to the fact that there must be a link between European and national levels, something which is not always perceptible. The task at hand is so great that the question of the Roma cannot fall within the scope of member state competence alone. With some 8-12 million Roma citizens moving freely around the EU, Union support is needed to ensure measures taken in member states are followed up. Not only an ethnic but also a territorial approach is needed. A bottom-up approach is necessary, beginning with local communities and working upward, otherwise the strategy will be doomed to failure, as Livia Jaroka, MEP, pointed out.
Zoltán Balogh, Hungarian Minister of State responsible for social inclusion, told the press that progress must be made along three roads: (1) The state must take firmer, clearer action to combat any form of discrimination. The EPSCO Council president said: “We do not want citizens to be exposed to the threat of discrimination. We cannot tolerate crime in uniform, that of paramilitary groups, for example, who play at being dispensers of justice. Hungary cannot tolerate that. The state must uphold order”. (2) There must be a majority in favour of Roma integration, hence the need to speak of culture and tolerance towards the Roma. (3) Legitimate national representation of the Roma is included in the treaty signed between the Hungarian government and the autonomous Roma government, of which Florian Farkas, who heads the autonomous Roma government in Hungary, has explained the content. Hungary thus has a system with a high rate of minority representation. Thirteen ethnic and regional minorities are registered in Hungary, the minister said, adding that, once registered, citizens of minority origin may, since 1993, vote in elections and be represented at municipal level. Since October 2010, 120,000 registered Roma have therefore been able to vote for their representatives. Furthermore, in Hungary, 6,000 elected minority members have the right to work, said Balogh. The legitimacy of the Roma minority must therefore be reinforced. The minister also stated that the treaty has created a training academy.
Livia Jaroka (EPP, Hungary), EP rapporteur, said she was “delighted” that the Hungarian Presidency of the EU Council in its report, and the Commission in its communication, well understood the “paradigm shift” that has entered the Roma issue. The MEP said it was not just a matter of finding a solution for the 12-15 million Roma living in poverty, but of beginning the exercise of integration for the poorest of the poor in Europe. This is not just a moral duty or a human right that should be upheld and which has been suddenly transferred upon the Roma, but a question of answering an essential question: “To what extent will member states use the framework offered to them to ensure that Roma inclusion is carried out in the best conditions and gives the desired results, that is, social cohesion which also leads to economic participation by these people” (and to access to the labour market, to healthcare, to housing, to equitable conditions, to education and training, etc).
What can be done to change the current situation? The European summit on 24 June must adopt this strategy. Nonetheless, what has already changed is the political commitment by the 27 member states and the paradigm shift that has occurred a little everywhere in Europe, Jaroka said. She went on to explain that Europe has understood that a purely ethnic approach is not the most important thing and that it is necessary to also take a territorial approach to the question. It is necessary, she said, to understand the nature of this kind of poverty, understand that Europe has remote and forgotten areas, that it is necessary to come down to the very lowest level of administration in order to find solutions. The Commission must have a more important role to play throughout Europe by encouraging member states to make changes in pursuit of this common objective. A call must be made to the attention of member states so that they adopt their crisis strategy and establish their own cartography for assessing the situation, as a map of poverty in Europe is of primary importance, Jaroka said. She suggested solutions. There should be a change in access to financial means. The European Parliament has proposed a control system based on funding open to different sources to shoulder local projects, it being necessary to have an approach that is based on local control and assessment authorities and which moves upwards, “otherwise, the strategy will be doomed to failure”. There must be consensus regarding what the states can do with these poor people who are not yet members of the EU. The EP has put a proposal on the table of the Council for the Western Balkans and Turkey - they should also present their crisis map and their outline of the national plan, Jaroka said, concluding that there was a need to rally civil society and the Church to the cause, an approach which stems from the level of the local community. The Roma community will be at the heart of this mobilisation and its success will very much depend on the stakeholders themselves. (G.B./transl.jl)