With a view to the presentation of the Commission's EU strategy for Roma inclusion, European Parliament Civil Liberties Committee outlined its priorities at its meeting on 14 February. These priorities include equal access to employment and education, protecting fundamental rights, better use of EU funding and involving Roma women in policy development.

The resolution adopted by the European Parliament Civil Liberties Committee on 14 February highlights that Roma people have suffered systematic discrimination and are struggling against an intolerable degree of exclusion, as well as human rights violations, severe stigmatization and discrimination in public and private life. According to Parliament's rapporteur, Roma inclusion is not merely a human rights obligation, but also an economic need and a financial interest of all Member States.

The key idea underlying this resolution is that Europe's 10 to 12 million Roma should benefit from EU-wide measures to promote their social, cultural and economic integration. With this document, MEPs show their hope that the Commission's upcoming proposal on Roma inclusion will take these priorities into account, priorities that are also shared by the programme of the Hungarian Presidency.

European Parliament priorities on Roma inclusion

Members of the Committee set out the priority areas which will require more efforts from local, national and EU authorities to integrate Roma people. In their opinion, the European Commission should present a roadmap for introducing binding minimum standards at EU level for these priorities and imposing penalties to Member states if they fail to comply with the objectives.

The strategy should address all forms of violations of the fundamental rights of Roma, including discrimination, segregation, hate speech, ethnic profiling and unlawful fingerprinting, as well as unlawful eviction and expulsion. It should also put an end to return of Roma to countries where they might be subjected to torture or to degrading treatment.

On employment, says the resolution, the strategy must ensure effective access to the labour market by making micro-credit available for entrepreneurship and self-employment. Member States and the Commission are called upon to adopt measures to combat undeclared jobs and to promote the hiring of Roma staff in the public administration. On education, the strategy could address the abolition of school and classroom segregation by employing Roma school mediators and increasing the number of Roma teachers. According to Committee members, the EU strategy should also address the specific needs of Roma women, by involving them in the development of policies and stopping the practice of child marriages. The support to girls' education should also be included in the strategy.

As the European Commission already did back in April 2010, the Civil Liberties Committee also urged to allocate a dedicated funding to support the strategy inside the cohesion policy within the next Multiannual Financial Framework. MEPs also advocate creating EU support bodies under the supervision of the existing Roma Task Force created in September 2010 following the events in France, in order to secure development-oriented EU funding in support of good local initiatives and to identify and report misuse of funds in time. Additionally, the scope of the EU funding should be extended so that besides development, the provision of quality public services also becomes eligible.