Press remarks by Vice-President Jourová - EU Roma strategic framework for Equality, Inclusion and Participation
- Good morning everyone.
- I want to be blunt.
- Over the last ten years we have not done enough to support the Roma population in the EU.
- The Roma are Europe's largest ethnic minority and in many Member States they constitute a significant part of the population.
- But many continue to face discrimination and racism.
- This lack of inclusion of Roma communities in our societies is a scar on Europe's conscience.
- The figures are really telling a sad story: 85% of Roma children are at risk of poverty compared to 20% of children in the general population, 62% of Roma youth are not in education, employment or training compared to 10% of youth in the general population.
Poor sanitary aid and lack of access to drinking water is still a common occurrence in many Roma villages
- When I visited last year, some of the villages still didn't have running water.
- And the pandemic brought a clear risk in making the current situation worse.
- This is why today we are relaunching our efforts to correct this situation, with clear targets and a renewed commitment to achieve real change over the next ten years.
- Putting together this new 10-year plan, it has been very important for us to evaluate our efforts over the last decade.
- First, we learnt that having an EU framework has put Roma inclusion on national political agendas.
- Then, any solution need to be found with the involvement of Roma communities, both on national and local level.
- I know this is possible. When I worked for the local council in my town of Trebic one of my tasks was to work with the Roma community in my town. We worked together and found amicable solutions for many problems.
- I trust this new EU plan will help to focus minds. It will also help us to monitor progress better.
- This is why we are proposing minimum targets for 2030 ranging across seven key areas:
- equality;
- inclusion;
- participation;
- education;
- employment;
- health;
- and housing.
- Helena will speak more about these in a moment.
- We set these EU-wide targets that will help us measure progress over the next decade and underline where we need to focus more effort.
- In order to meet these targets, the Commission will provide guidance to Member States, and we are proposing measures to be taken by Member States to speed up progress.
- We want Member States to put in place their own plans by 2021 and then regularly report on how the implementation of these plans is going.
- And we want Member States to share best practices and provide adequate funds for good and practical projects. Of course, the EU will also help.
- Because we do have some good examples.
- And I am pleased to announce that the Western Balkans agreed to join this effort too.
- Going back to best practices:
- Training and employing Roma health mediators to promote Roma access to healthcare;
- Introducing Roma history and culture in national curricula;
- free legal aid service for victims of discrimination and hate crime;
- Or targeted local support to reduce the prevalence of shanty towns and address segregated living.
- What we don't have are enough good examples.
- Helena and I will both be speaking at a high-level conference next week on the strategic framework we are presenting to you today.
- And with many people from civil society, including Roma.
- My view has always been that dialogue and engagement between politicians and civil society when it comes to addressing the very acute and specific needs of Roma, is crucial to our future success.
- This is how we built our 10-year plan, with the input of national experts, civil society, the expertise of our Fundamental Rights Agency and our own experiences in the Commission.
- We have a long way to go, and we are moving in the right direction, but we need to significantly speed up.
- Thank you.