April 8, 2013
The commission has been urged to ‘do more’ to end discrimination against Roma people throughout member states
The executive should “take decisive action and play a central role” in ending discrimination against Roma people in Europe. The demand, from the charity Amnesty International, was made on Monday, designated ‘international Roma day’. It comes more than a decade after the EU adopted the race equality directive that bans racial or ethnic-based discrimination.
According to Amnesty, Roma people across Europe “continue to face widespread discrimination” in areas including access to housing, healthcare, employment and education.
Speaking on Monday, Nicolas Beger, director of Amnesty International European institutions office, said, “The EU must use all the tools at its disposal to penalise governments that fail to tackle discrimination and violence against Roma people.
“Racial and ethnic-based discrimination is forbidden by the directive and the EU’s charter of fundamental rights, but the European commission has so far been hesitant to act against EU countries which violate the human rights of Roma people.”
On Monday, the charity mounted a ‘Roma village’ outside parliament as part of a new high-profile campaign to highlight the ‘plight’ of Roma people.
Amnesty says the six million Roma people who live in EU countries “fall far below” national averages on almost all human development indicators: eight out of 10 are at risk of poverty, and only one in seven young adults completes secondary education.
Amnesty also claims that the “forced eviction” of Roma people “continues to be common” in several European countries including France, Italy and Romania.
In the Czech Republic, Greece and Slovakia, it says that Roma children “continue to attend segregated schools, which contravenes national and EU laws which forbid racial discrimination.”
More than 120 serious violent attacks against Roma people and their property allegedly occurred in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia between January 2008 and July 2012, which included shootings, stabbings and arson attacks.
State authorities, including the police, “frequently fail to prevent or properly” investigate these attacks, according to Amnesty.
Beger said, “As the EU’s executive body, the commission has the necessary powers to pursue EU countries which fail to comply with EU law and the charter.
“However, this has never happened in respect of policies and practices which discriminate against the Roma or any other ethnic minority.”
Further comment came from Monika Kosinska, secretary general of the European public health alliance (EPHA), who said, “All across Europe, we have been neglecting or undermining the most fundamental rights of Roma people for too long.
“It is a shameful situation which we must take responsibility for and action against. In the end of the day, combating social exclusion, discrimination and inequality is an explicit commitment of the EU and European capitals.”
Source: The Parliament Magazine
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