EU should lead efforts to help Roma

Socialists and Democrats are ready to lead the way in the fight against discrimination.

In last week’s edition, Valeriu Nicolae called on the EU to address its institutional failure to include Roma (“Extraordinary, indeed”, 29 March-3 April).

I have known Valeriu for many years. I visited him recently in Bucharest in one of the worst ghettoes I have been to. I spent time with the children and the people he works with, and I could appreciate the impact his work has at the very grassroots.

He is one of the very few people I know who preferred to leave a comfortable life in Brussels and put his own money and efforts into trying to prove that social inclusion is possible even in the most difficult scenarios.

In his article, Valeriu calls for an independent evaluation of the European Commission led by the European Parliament. He does so in a strong and sometimes clearly frustrated tone; some EU officials may view it as unjustifiably harsh.

There are a number of points on which my views differ from his, but I believe we should examine his call for institutional reform very seriously in order to increase both the efficiency and the impact of EU policies and funds at the grassroots level.

The EU set itself ambitious objectives last year, defining for the first time an ‘EU framework for national Roma integration strategies’ up to 2020 – an effort endorsed by all institutions and repeatedly requested by the Parliament.

However, these national strategies are being implemented too slowly and EU institutions’ own efforts still seem to be well below what is needed in order to ensure that the EU plays a strong role in fighting discrimination and exclusion of Roma.

I am convinced that enhanced, regular scrutiny by the Parliament of the implementation of the EU framework for national Roma integration strategies could add value, particularly if based on an independent evaluation of the Commission’s institutional and financial mechanisms.

Independent evaluation and enhanced democratic scrutiny could increase quite considerably the incentive that the EU’s administration has to improve decision-making processes and to assess thoroughly the potential of EU funds to boost Roma social inclusion and empowerment.

On the issue of Roma empowerment, Valeriu is strident, suggesting that the Commission has a problem with structural racism. He is provocative and sometimes maybe too blunt.

But his challenge highlights an issue of concern to all EU institutions and to policymakers at all levels. We seem incapable of attracting enough members of the Roma elites to participate and contribute to the European and national democratic processes. To date, we have failed to spur policymakers and society to combat anti-Gypsyism, and to spur the Roma to become more active in their societies.

Social dumping remains a serious risk: national figures related to the exclusion of Roma have barely decreased, if at all, in the past 20 years.

I agree with the Commission, which says that the real challenge now is the empowerment of Roma, together with and beyond social and economic inclusion and the fight against discrimination. But if this is the ambitious task that EU institutions have accepted, together with national governments, then the EU’s institutions themselves should lead the effort.

The parliamentary group that I lead, the Socialists and Democrats, is ready to take up this challenge and to promote it at all levels – European, national and local. Since 2010, our group has run a specific traineeship for young Roma policy advisers to gain political and legislative experience in our secretariat in the Parliament.

If we all play our part, future Roma Platform meetings could see contributions from many more Roma EU officials, Roma experts and Roma MEPs.

That is the only way to show that criticisms such as Valeriu’s are too harsh.

He would, I am sure, be the first to acknowledge significant progress.

Hannes Swoboda MEP

Brussels