Proposal for a Council Recommendation on effective Roma integration measures in the Member States

Many Roma in Europe face prejudice, intolerance, discrimination and social exclusion in their daily lives. They are marginalised and mostly live in very bad socio-economic conditions. On average, only one in two Roma children attend pre-school or kindergarten; participation in education drops considerably after compulsory school with only 15% of young Roma adults completing upper-secondary education; on average, fewer than one in three Roma report to be in employment; 20% are not covered by health insurance and 90% are living below the poverty line.

This undermines social cohesion and sustainable human development, hampers competitiveness and generates costs for society as a whole. Discrimination of the Roma is also incompatible with the values upon which the EU is founded. The crux of the problem lies in the close links between discrimination and social exclusion experienced by Roma.

On 5 April 2011, the Commission adopted an EU Framework for national Roma integration strategies up to 2020. The European Council endorsed it in June 2011. It expressed the EU’s political will to address the situation of Roma. With this Framework, the European Commission aims to ensure that Member States adopt an effective approach to Roma integration and endorse goals on the four pillars of education, employment, health and housing.

Under the Framework, the Commission must report annually on progress made by the Member States. In 2012, it assessed for the first time the national strategies presented by the Member States and adopted horizontal conclusions and specific indications on the strengths and weaknesses of each Member State’s strategy.

One year on, the Commission’s report focuses on the progress the Member States have made in ensuring that several pre-conditions are in place for successfully implementing the national strategies. These pre-conditions include involving regional and local authorities, working closely with civil society, monitoring and evaluating the implementation of the strategies, including by reinforcing the role of the National Roma Contact Points, allocating the necessary funding, stepping up the fight against discrimination and mainstreaming it into other policies. In its assessment, the Commission took into consideration input from civil society and other stakeholders.

Building on the conclusions of this report and on the Commission’s 2012 progress report, the proposal for a Council Recommendation aims to speed up progress by focusing the attention of the Member States on a number of concrete measures that are crucial for implementing their strategies more effectively.

• Primary Source

EUR-Lex: COM(2013)460: Follow the progress of this proposal through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=COM:2013:460:FIN

ESO: Background information: Roma: Commission calls on Member States to step up efforts on integration http://www.europeansources.info/record/press-release-roma-commission-calls-on-member-states-to-step-up-efforts-on-integration/

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