At the European Union level, non-discrimination legislation (Directive 2000/43) was
introduced in 2000, banning discrimination on the grounds of race and ethnicity in the areas
of employment, access to goods and services, health care, education and social protection.
A policy instrument, the 10 Common Basic Principles of Roma Inclusion, was introduced by
the first meeting of the European Platform for Roma Inclusion in 2009 with an emphasis on
constructive, not repressive policies; on “explicit but not exclusive targeting” of such
policies; and using culturally sensitive instruments to provide for Roma access to
mainstream housing, mainstream jobs and mainstream education: in other words, neither a
“one-size-fits-all” approach which would overlook their specific culture and experiences, nor
something that would be entirely separate and thus continue their segregation.
As far as financial instruments are concerned, following an amendment to the Regulation of
the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) in 2010, there is a potential for using the
EU’s Structural Funds to fund the housing of vulnerable groups such as Roma.
The EU enlargement process offers the EU the opportunity to review the progress of current
and potential candidate countries and during this process it has more leverage than towards
current Member States.
Responsibilities for education, employment and housing policies remain at the national
level among EU Member States. The most consistent development towards a gradual
improvement of socio-economic conditions of the Roma over the last two decades at a
national level has been in Spain with the introduction of instruments such as targeted
re-qualification courses and community-based social work. Elsewhere, however, we have
recently seen the problems of the Roma formulated as a security issue rather than one of
social inclusion or minority rights by the Governments of Italy and France. At the same time
most CEE countries have done relatively little to counteract the disastrous effects of the
Roma’s economic downfall.
At the local level, the repressive and punitive approach has been most visible, though a
“laissez-faire” approach may actually be the dominant one in terms of numbers.
What then should be done?
States should take their obligations under international instruments seriously. They should
take into account the concluding observations of the Treaty bodies, above all those of the
Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), the Committee on the Rights
of the Child (CRC) as well as the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights on
segregated education etc.