Education is the area where Member States have made the most efforts to promote Roma inclusion, according to the European Commission's annual report on the implementation of national strategies for Roma inclusion, published on Friday 6 September.
“Member States have worked hard. Now, 90% of Roma children attend primary and lower secondary school. This is an encouraging step towards promoting integration of the Roma in society”, welcomed the European Commissioner for Justice, Věra Jourová, in a statement.
The report shows that 18 Member States (Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Spain, Greece, Hungary, Croatia, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Sweden, Slovakia and the United Kingdom) have put in place measures to limit the school dropout rate of Roma children.
11 EU countries have taken measures to encourage participation and completion of secondary and tertiary education. Efforts are also being made to combat school segregation and use inclusive teaching methods in 12 Member States.
Nevertheless, much remains to be done, particularly with regard to access to public services, decent housing, employment and health care. “I call on all Member States to continue their efforts, so that all Roma can enjoy the same rights as any other European citizen”, said Commissioner Jourová.
To combat discrimination, the most frequent measures taken by Member States are to combat anti-Roma rhetoric and hate speech. On the other hand, few Member States (only Austria, Spain, Italy and the Netherlands) invest in measures to specifically protect Roma women and children from discrimination, violence or forced marriage.
According to the first results of a Eurobarometer survey, which will be published in the coming weeks, 61% of respondents believe that discrimination against Roma is widespread in their country and only 19% of them believe that their country's efforts to integrate its Roma population are effective.
See the report: http://bit.ly/2lVCadk (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)