9 years after a first unsuccessful attempt (see EUROPE 12525/8), the European Commission is expected to present a new strategic framework for the inclusion of Romani communities on Tuesday 6 October, an opportunity for the European institution to review its approach to this issue and address the shortcomings and inefficiencies of the 2011 initiative.
Romani communities, which constitute the largest ethnic minority in the EU, still live today in conditions of extreme poverty and continue to face widespread discrimination (see EUROPE 12566/13).
Romeo Franz (Greens/EFA, Germany), a Romani man of Sinti origin himself, hopes however that this new strategic framework will finally mark the “first step” by the EU “in the right direction”.
Mr Franz contributed to the development of this framework by supporting a resolution, adopted by an overwhelming majority in plenary on 18 September (see EUROPE 12563/3).
“The moment I saw the result of the vote, I felt at home”, said Mr Franz, who has been with the institution for 2 years, in an interview with EUROPE. He said that he had seen in this election proof “that the European Parliament is the Parliament for Romani people, too”.
Ignored population
This, until now, was not a matter of course. Its resolution, in fact, highlights the EU’s lack of understanding of these communities.
In particular, it points out that the current strategic framework only addresses the Roma – only one of the groups that make up the Romani people – and effectively excludes the Kalè, Manouches, Lovara, Rissende, Boyash, Domare, Kalderash, Romanichal or Sinti, who live in different EU countries.
“Assuming that all the groups behind the term ‘Romani’ are very similar and that the same approaches are applicable in all countries and groups” was “one of the mistakes of the previous strategic framework”, confirms Jaroslav Kling, researcher at the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights.
Institutional antiziganism
“When we don’t see this diversity and make it a homogeneous whole, we don’t see the needs. Because the needs are also diverse”, says Mr Franz.
A gap that the post-2020 framework to be presented this Tuesday should take into account. Similarly, it will no longer speak of “integration” – considered synonymous with “assimilation” – but of “inclusion”.
The new strategic framework is also expected to recognise antiziganism – “often institutional and governmental”, according to Parliament’s resolution – as a major obstacle to the inclusion of Romani communities.
Mr Franz recounts his experience with this antiziganism in Romania, where a high-ranking state official refused to accompany him to a neighbourhood where Romani families lived, even though he was in charge of them.
“We have seen such difficult things: naked children playing in the mud, bitten by rats, and many of them with disabilities. I was so ashamed, as an EU citizen”, he regrets.
Binding proposal
The solution here, for many observers, lies in a binding legislative proposal from the Commission which governments would not be able to circumvent, as has been the case since 2011.
Noting that the Commission should at least propose binding targets, Mr Kling points out, however, that the eternal question will then arise “whether the Member States will accept these ambitious targets and approve them in the EU Council”.
Mr Franz pointed out that, under the Treaties, the Commission now had no choice but to present a directive, as the resolution adopted in September called on it to do so and was supported by more than 80% of the Members of Parliament.
It should be noted, however, that it took the MEP and his team to involve the European Parliament’s Legal Service at a meeting for Mr Franz’s request to call on the Commission in his resolution to present such a text to be taken seriously. (Original version in French by Agathe Cherki)