With Roma communities still suffering from exclusion and discrimination, MEPs and the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) have called for more targeted and inclusive strategies.
Ioannis Dimitrakopoulos, scientific adviser on the equality and inclusion of the Roma community at FRA, presented the Agency’s latest report on this topic. Among other things, it finds that 80% of Roma are at risk of poverty, compared to 17% of the general EU population. “The EU Roma Strategic Framework for the inclusion and participation of Roma people sets out clear targets for change, still the results (...) indicate that progress remains limited”, he warned. Peter Pollák (EPP, Slovakian), who deplored the high level of investment, “including with EU funds”, for little result.
Targeted strategies that include community members
Maria Grapini (S&D, Romanian) said this lack of progress was the result of strategies whose objective was merely to “tick boxes”. She therefore called for targeted, funded programmes to encourage training for young people, particularly for professional sectors of interest to Roma communities.
Romeo Franz (Greens/EFA, German) stressed the need to take into account the diversity within the Roma community itself, saying that “one-size-fits-all” solutions were not effective. “These studies are important but should not be conducted in a paternalistic kind of way. They should be done together with the people”, he concluded.
Housing is a fundamental element for inclusion
Ioannis Dimitrakopoulos agreed with MEPs, stressing the importance of involving communities and prioritising investments and efforts. Access to housing is “key in breaking the vicious circle of intergenerational poverty and social exclusion”, he said. “We need to prioritise actions in housing to ensure that our actions in other areas such as employment and education are also successful”, he argued.
He welcomed the latest European Parliament resolution on this subject (see EUROPE 13036/13). “Let me also remind you that the Multiannual Financial Framework for 2021-2027, combined with Next Generation EU, create a unique potential for financing housing solutions”, he continued. He noted that five Member States are proposing “housing-led solutions” in their National Recovery and Resilience Plans (NRP), although “it remains to be seen whether Roma communities will be sufficiently included”.
To read the FRA report: https://aeur.eu/f/3xo (Original version in French by Hélène Seynaeve)