On Monday 19 January, Bridge EU, an NGO specialising in human rights and social inclusion, held an online event dedicated to investigating violations of fundamental rights in projects financed by the European Union and organised as part of the FURI (EU Funds for Fundamental Rights) project, to document and prevent the use of European funds that run counter to the principles of justice, equality and non-discrimination.
The conclusions of a research study published last May on 63 projects in six Member States (Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Poland and Romania), representing around €1.1 billion in European funding, were presented.
According to Bridge EU, what these projects have in common is “successful” material investment in infrastructure, which in practice fuels the segregation of Roma children in schools, the institutionalisation of people with disabilities, the isolation of marginalised groups in social housing, and the detention of migrants and asylum seekers.
“The problem is not a lack of money, but an erroneous - or even deliberately biased - interpretation of fundamental legal standards”, stressed Bridge EU co-founder Andor Urmos.
The national fund management authorities, like some of the Commission’s Directorates-General, are said to be ill-equipped to identify these violations and are passing the buck.
The NGO - which believes that violations of fundamental rights should be treated in the same way as corruption - is therefore calling for the consolidation of media investigations, the use of litigation to bring about changes in public policy and greater participation by the communities concerned.
To see the report: https://aeur.eu/f/kat (Original version in French by Nithya Paquiry)