The long march of the Roma

“In the EU each man, woman and child has the right to live a life free of any discrimination and persecution”. Yet all this does not seem to be guaranteed to European citizens of Rom origin, declared José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission. He underlined once again that the daily reality of this part of the population “is dramatic”, and urged that member states and the Union itself have the duty to “provide real opportunities for integration”. “Common action needed”. The head of the Executive was speaking at the European summit on Roma, Sinti and “travelling people”, held in Brussels on 16 September. The aim of the meeting, which brought to the Belgian capital some 400 participants (politicians, academics, representatives of civil society and Rom organizations), was to “examine the situation of Rom communities in the Union and find common solutions for improving it”. The summit was a follow-up to some recent interventions in the EU institutions: the Council had already dealt with the issue last year; the European Parliament has debated it on several occasions; while the Commission had inserted it in the European Social Agenda presented in July. This document stressed the need for “common action to combat the exclusion and discrimination of which the Roma are the victims in Europe”. The debate and the conclusions of this week’s summit will be brought to the attention of the European Council in December 2008.Oostacles to integration. Apart from Barroso, the main speakers at the summit included Commissioners Jacques Barrot and Vladimir Spidla, other representatives of the EU institutions and of member countries, George Soros, President of the Open Society Institute (which is committed to combating all forms of discrimination), and Romani Rose, chairman of the central Council of Sinti and Roma in Germany. Various MEPs were also present, including the two Hungarian MEPs of Rom origin, Livia Jàròka and Viktòria Mohàcsi. The Commission and the rotating Presidency of the EU, co-promoters of the summit, insisted on the “persistent discrimination” of which Roma and Sinti are the victims in Europe, and their “social exclusion”, with particular reference to education, employment, healthcare and housing. In its preparatory document the Commission had listed 14 “obstacles to integration”, such as the lack of schooling, insufficiency of language skills, difficulties of incorporation in the world of work, lack of access to “active citizenship”, and the “continuing existence of stereotypes and prejudices”. A stain on our conscience. “In the twenty-first century the situation of Roma represents a stain on the conscience of Europe”, declared Vladimir Spidla, European Commissioner for equal opportunities. “The problems involved are many-sided and complex – he admitted -, but we have the means to improve integration through legislation, funding and sharing effective policies”. The Czech Commissioner also underlined the “need for joint commitment at the local, regional, national and European level to ensure that these measures work more effectively”. For his part Commissioner Jacques Barrot said: “The majority of Roma, in all the member states in which they are present, too often live on the margins of society and are the victims of poverty, precariousness and widespread prejudices”.Controversies and protests. During the debate moments of controversy and protest were not lacking. A group of participants displayed a T-shirt inscribed with a slogan denouncing any form of compulsory registration or discrimination against gipsies. Some of them attacked the representative of the Italian government, which as part of a wider strategy to guarantee the security of citizens is proceeding to a “census” of Roma, also through compulsory fingerprinting. A war of words between Soros and Barrot was prompted just by the measures being planned by Italy, while a part of the Roma representatives left the chamber as a sign of protest. The role of governments. More generally, there was a common recognition that the principle of non-discrimination and the need for the full integration of Roma in EU countries are shared convictions that cannot be renounced. But different sensibilities and widely contrasting methods of approach also emerged during the summit, also by the virtue of the different presence, and different impact, of “Romany” populations in the member countries. In fact Roma are generally of Hungarian, Romanian or Bulgarian origin. They have also lived for a long time in Spain, France, Italy, Austria, Greece and in the Balkans. The representatives of the Commission themselves had to recognize that “the main responsibility for many of the central aspects of the integration of Roma (education, employment, social inclusion…) is essentially that of the member states”. The question remains how to find methods and instruments to tackle the problem with homogeneous principles: but on this point the EU seems far from achieving any appreciable results.