Roma, four priorities: school, employment, heath and housing The States of the European Union are called to pursue objectives in the areas of education, employment, healthcare and housing, “with a view to closing the gaps between marginalised Roma communities and the general population”. The EU Council of Ministers a few days ago gave the green light to the document drawn up by the Commission. The report will be submitted to the European Council for endorsement at the end of June. By the end of the year EU27 are encouraged to develop national strategies “in the fields of education, employment, healthcare and housing”. “The Framework focuses on four pillars”, states the Commission in a release. Member States are called to devote special attention to minors, women and to situations marked by exclusion. For this purpose governments are called to allocate sufficient funding “and work in close cooperation with Roma civil society and with regional and local authorities”. With the Commission, they are called “to optimize the use of EU funds for integration projects”. It is a pressing issue pursued by the Hungarian six-month EU presidency as a priority. “Many Roma still face deep poverty, profound social exclusion, and discrimination, which often means limited access to quality education, jobs and services, low income levels, sub-standard housing conditions, poor health and lower life expectancy”, the EU Council of Ministers stress in their statement.Cultural heritage, European label “The European Heritage Label will encourage more people, especially the young, to think about the European dimension of our shared history”. EU Commissioner Androulla Vassiliou has welcomed an agreement by EU27 Culture Ministers to launch a “European Heritage Label”, which will highlight sites that celebrate the history and development of the European Union”. The procedure will be defined in the next 18 months, “the first sites to receive the new Label will be announced in 2013”. Vassiliou points out: “I am sure that it will also be good for tourism and the economy.” In 2013-14, Member States will be able to nominate four sites to receive the award: independent experts will assess the nominations and select which should be designated with the Label. From 2015, selection will take place every two years Member States will be able to nominate up to two sites each time. The 68 sites which have received the Label under the previous scheme (launched in 2006) “will be able to apply for the new EU Label”. They include the home of EU founding father Robert Schuman in Scy-Chazelles, France, and the Gdansk Shipyards in Poland, birthplace of the independent trade union Solidarnosc.Commission: soil sealing in the EU threatens the availability of ecosystem services Limiting the progression of soil sealing to protect ecosystems and the environment. On May 23 the EU Commission released a recommendation, accompanied by a set of proposals, conveying the findings of a survey across EU27. “Every year in Europe, soils covering an area larger than the city of Berlin are lost to urban sprawl and transport infrastructure. This unsustainable trend threatens the availability of fertile soils and groundwater reservoirs for future generations”. The European Commission recommends a three-tiered approach focused on “limiting the progression of soil sealing, mitigating its effects and compensating valuable soil losses by action in other areas”. Environment Commissioner Janez Potoènik said: “We rely on soils for some fundamental ecosystem services, and without them life on our planet would grind to a halt. We cannot afford to continue paving them over”. To this regard the survey proposes to limiting the progression of soil sealing with improved spatial planning; mitigation actions to reduce damage when soil sealing cannot be avoided; compensation measures to partially offset soil losses in one area by measures taken somewhere else (as in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, and in urban areas in Dresda and Vienna). The Commission’s concern is due to “concerning” data. In fact, Between 1990 and 2000, at least 275 hectares of soil were lost per day in the EU, amounting to 1,000 km² per year”. “This trend has been reduced to 252 hectare per day” in recent years, but “the rate of land consumption is still worrying”.
