On Sunday 2 August, the EU celebrated “European Roma Holocaust Memorial Day” in memory of the 500,000 Roma murdered during the Second World War.
“It's deeply right for us to have this commemoration in the Europe of today. Because the Europe of today is a place where we see a rise in patterns of hate and hate crime directed against Roma, Sinti and Travellers”, said Michael O'Flaherty, the Director of the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA).
In a joint statement, Ursula von der Leyen, the President of the European Commission, Věra Jourová, the Vice-President for Values and Transparency, and Helena Dalli, the Commissioner for Equality, stated that remembering persecution of the Roma “reminds us of the need to tackle the challenges they still face today and which are too often overlooked”.
All three called on the EU-27 to take action against antigypsyism and to support the “EU Strategic Framework for Roma Equality, Inclusion and Participation to 2030” (see EUROPE 12525/8), which the Commission has committed to presenting before the end of the year.
In an opinion piece published in the German daily newspaper Neues Deutschland, Romeo Franz MEP (Greens/EFA), the first German Sinto to take up a seat in the European Parliament, lamented the “massive discrimination” suffered by these minorities “in all areas of life, at school, at work and when looking for housing”.
Ergo, a network that works to provide equal opportunities for Roma, stated that it is a matter of regret that the persecution of Roma over the centuries is still largely unknown and called on governments and the international community to “recognise antigypsyism as a specific form of racism that targets Roma communities” and to integrate Roma history and culture into school curricula and textbooks. (Original version in French by Agathe Cherki)