A new report published on Monday 26 May by the BridgeEU collective highlights how “around €1.1 billion [have been] used to support projects that fail to align with, or violate, fundamental rights requirements”, such as the schooling of Roma children and the deportation of migrants.
Conducted over the course of a year by civil society organisations in Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Greece, and covering a selection of funds under shared management over the 2014-2020 and 2021-2027 periods, this research documents 63 examples of “violations financed with EU funds: educational and housing segregation of Roma communities and children with disabilities; use of temporary housing for Roma communities; institutionalisation of people with disabilities, Roma children and family separation; deprivation of liberty of people with a migrant background; limited or no access to mainstream (non-segregated) good quality public services; pushbacks of people with a migrant background; violation of the rights to protection of personal data of people with a migrant background”.
The fundamental rights requirements “are poorly understood by stakeholders”, the report points out. “Therefore there is an urgent need to strengthen capacities in all participating countries, and at the EU level, to report cases of fundamental rights violations in EU funds to national and EU authorities”.
Strict, enforceable legal requirements are also “needed in the post-2027 EU funds regulatory framework”.
Link to the report: https://aeur.eu/f/h1g (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)