At the close of the European Parliament’s plenary session in Strasbourg on Thursday 14 September, MEPs asked the European Commission to explain why Roma children continue to be discriminated against in the education system, despite dedicated European funding.
“Even though billions of euros have been invested and strategies exist [...], discrimination remains”, lamented Peter Pollák (EPP, Slovak).
The Commissioner for Cohesion, Elisa Ferreira, admitted that the situation had “worsened in recent years”, but said that the Commission was tackling the problem “through a comprehensive set of policies, substantial funding and legal instruments”.
A European arsenal...
In addition to the racial equality directive, the Commission has put in place a ten-year inclusion plan 2021-2030, one of the objectives of which is to promote access to the mainstream education system.
It also provides for EU countries to develop national strategies on the subject. The Commissioner explained that “all Member States with a large Roma population have developed measures to prevent segregation in education that are incorporated in their proposals for multi-annual fundings” (see EUROPE 13095/2).
In addition, the Commission has “put pressure” on the EU27 to reflect these objectives in their use of ESF+ and ERDF, as well as in their national recovery and resilience plans.
... Not very effective?
Faced with MEPs’ doubts about the effectiveness of the use of EU funds, the Commissioner argued that, in order to truly include Roma children in education systems, EU countries must also take into account challenges such as lack of access to housing or health care.
“This requires a coherent approach that includes different dimensions, which is very demanding in terms of technical and governance work”, she summarised. As a result, dedicated funds are often reprogrammed from one period to the next, “because the conditions for the executions and applications for those funds are not there”. (Original version in French by Hélène Seynaeve)