Marie Gall
Roma integration;
2022-10-27 08:00:00
The main responsibility rests with the governments of the member states.
The European Union’s Fundamental Rights Agency sounded the alarm. The report stated that the Roma community is still forced to face “an appalling level of deprivation, exclusion and discrimination”, and the position of the Roma in the area of social inclusion has not improved at all compared to the common goals set by the European Union. From the Vienna-based European Union organization published on Tuesday. In his statement, Director General Michelle O’Flaherty stated: European and national legislation and policies still do not guarantee basic rights for Roma, which could change their daily lives. The governments of member states must use all possible means to change this “intolerable” and “intolerable” situation.
The FRA report entitled “Gypsies in 10 Countries” is actually based on an investigation covering 12 countries, and the overall picture is really disturbing. In the countries examined – Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Spain, Portugal and Romania, as well as non-EU Serbia and Macedonia – in general, no progress has been made since the last similar survey in 2016. The situation is not good in Hungary either, But there is some improvement in all indicators.
The EU agency concluded that because these surveys serve as a baseline for assessing the effectiveness of the 10-year plan, countries themselves should collect this data regularly, and the results should help countries develop more targeted measures in their national strategies for Roma. Among the necessary measures, targeted education and training to help Roma youth and Roma women, improve employment opportunities and provide greater social protection with a view to eradicating poverty were highlighted.
The present report is important above all because, although the NRA has shown time and again what civic organizations and social professionals say, that there is still no improvement in the situation of the Roma despite the strategy of the Common European Roma Inclusion Framework, this This time the EU superstructure faces its own limitations in this area. The report confronts Member States with the fact that the “progress reports” that they have submitted annually since 2012 have remained empty words, and there is no significant improvement in the living conditions of the communities, the sense of exclusion experienced by the Roma, or the experience of discrimination, Laszlo Vosto, a minority and Roma researcher, replied to Our inquiry. A member of the Minority Research Institute team in Cluj-Napoca, who also participated in the survey. He stressed that the main responsibility for this stagnation clearly rests with the governments of Member States.
“I am increasingly convinced that realistic progress in the field of social integration can only be expected in the case of projects with very local and specific objectives. In contrast, the EU does not have a common policy for Roma integration in the strict sense of the word. There has been a framework strategy since 2011, which Adopted by all member states.Accordingly, states set themselves national goals and propose public policies, knowing in advance that no one will really hold them accountable for their results.Governments monitor themselves and report on the level of progress on an annual basis to the EU’s Directorate-General for Justice (DG Justice) ), which takes note of these reports and makes recommendations.In addition, “shadow reports” written by NGOs are prepared, which mainly list shortcomings, but the impact of these critical voices is incidental and cannot really be measured.
There are preliminary steps to follow through on the use of those funds by the EU Agency, or even the European Prosecutor’s Office, which come directly from the common budget lines. We’ll see how it turns out, “Was the researcher’s opinion on our proposal, why are there no tangible effects of EU programs and funds?
He said: The social integration of Roma cannot be the task of the European Union alone. Integration is primarily the responsibility of member states, so national governments and local institutions must take the lion’s share of projects. For this to happen, we wait in vain for an increase in the degree of social integration.
According to the Cluj-Napoca expert, EU programs are helping, but the deterioration of the situation of Roma communities has reached a level just enough to keep individual indicators at a certain level. The Covid-19 pandemic has greatly exacerbated the situation. The field work for this research took place in the spring and summer of 2021, and it reflects the negative effects and experiences of the epidemic that broke out the previous year, the fact that the Roma suffered more than other periods. For example, in the field of education, especially at the primary level, the situation has worsened as a result of the introduction of online education. During this time, disadvantages increased in the segregated communities.
Regarding the effectiveness of EU funds, it cannot be ignored that “the transaction costs of integration policies are currently unfortunately high, and it costs disproportionately much to provide resources or services to those in need, and therefore a large part of the funds are consumed by the intermediary structure. Those in Most needed it they hardly get anything, because they are in a situation where they cannot “call” the resources, because most of the time they do not have the knowledge, skills and reserves with which they can get into the system. Let’s look, for example, at the bidding system, which is a procedure The most common distribution: There are several prerequisites for a community to successfully participate in a bid. Often a successful person with experience, who wasn’t even the poorest in the first place, or a company that specializes in writing bids. Not to mention the fact that finding and paying a specialized application writer It requires reserves and connections, which is what drove the more marginal rural settlements out of this system in the first place.
I don’t see any signs of shifting, I can only hope the operators have already realized the system’s shortcomings. More direct and specific local targets, or state investments that do not depend or fail due to lack of local capacity in a particular settlement, should be allocated,” said the Cluj-Napoca researcher.
