Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-12-03-Speech-3-111"
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"en.20081203.14.3-111"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, the Council fully acknowledges the vital importance of taking appropriate measures with a view to improving the situation of the Roma and of promoting their fundamental rights, as this House requested in its resolution of 31 January.
With this in view, provision is also made for better use of the Structural Funds. It is for this reason that the Council invites the Commission to present it, in 2010, with a report on the progress made, to continue discussions and to organise the necessary exchanges with the Roma organisations.
That is what I wished to say to this House, Mr President, ladies and gentlemen.
As you know, real progress has been made under the French Presidency in the areas of non-discrimination and inclusion and, in this context, it has been possible to take account of the situation of the Roma, not least within the package on the Social Agenda, as it was presented by Commissioner Špidla on 2 July.
The aim of the package presented by the Commission is to give fresh impetus to policies to combat poverty, exclusion and discrimination affecting the most vulnerable groups, and, from this point of view, the proposals that were made by the Commission and that take stock of the existing instruments, which help ensure the greater inclusion of the Roma population, truly are a very good contribution.
For its part, the Council regrets that the Member States were unable to agree as one on a package relating to the fight against poverty and social exclusion, in financial terms. I also wished to say this on the occasion of this debate.
The first European summit on the Roma was held on 16 September. It was supported by the President of the Commission and by the French Presidency of the European Union. The declaration that was adopted underlines the Member States’ responsibilities with a view to ensuring the meaningful inclusion of the Roma, by laying emphasis on the strengthening of people’s individual rights and on the importance of the participation of Roma organisations.
A second equality summit was held on 29 and 30 September 2008. During this summit we emphasised the problems with which the Roma population is all too often faced, be it in terms of access to education, jobs or vocational training, as well as access to other goods and services, and this enabled us to see how to act more effectively to combat the discrimination suffered by this population.
We are also pleased with the inclusion of the situation of the Roma within the European Union and will ensure that this is one of the priorities of the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights.
The French Presidency recently produced some draft conclusions relating to the specific situation of the Roma. These conclusions will be submitted to the Council of Foreign Affairs Ministers and the General Affairs and External Relations Council next Monday and Tuesday. I shall give your Committee on Foreign Affairs an account of them on Tuesday.
The draft conclusions call on the Commission and the Member States to take account of the situation of the Roma in the design and implementation of policies on the protection of fundamental rights, in the policy on combating poverty and discrimination, in policies on gender equality and in those on access to education, housing, health care, jobs, the law and culture. In these draft conclusions we call for the Commission and the Member States to identify tangible actions for 2009 and 2010."@en1
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