Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-03-09-Speech-2-332"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20100309.23.2-332"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spoken text |
"Mr President, I would like to thank Mr Swoboda and his colleagues for tabling this oral question on the European Roma Summit. It allows the Commission to express its commitment to ensuring the protection of fundamental rights, on the one hand, and full social and economic integration into our societies on the other. We have just heard the Council making a real plea about the way the Member States have to go ahead by putting this in the mainstream of their policies.
Finally, thanks to the European Parliament, there are the pilot projects on Roma inclusion, with a budget of EUR 5 million over two years. This pilot project addresses early childhood education, self-employment through micro credits and public awareness. The evaluation of this pilot project will be carried out jointly by the UNDP and the World Bank. I am very much looking forward to this evaluation because the evaluation will bring us the information about what we have done well and where the deficiencies are so that we can build on this in order to go ahead with a very targeted action afterwards.
The European platform for Roma inclusion was launched as a joint initiative of the Commission and the Czech Presidency in April 2009. Its objective is to bring together relevant actors at European, national and international level, as well as actors from civil society, and make existing policies altogether much more coherent. This platform has led to the elaboration of the common basic principles for Roma inclusion, which is annexed to the Council conclusions on Roma inclusion adopted in June of last year. These conclusions call upon the Commission to take the 10 common basic principles for Roma inclusion into account when designing and implementing policies. Further meetings of the platform are expected to take place under the Spanish Presidency and the Belgian Presidency so it is not a one-off action but it is followed up. I very much welcome the strong commitment of the Trio of Presidencies on this objective because we need to play into each other’s hands so that progress can be made. The Commission will continue to contribute to the Trio’s actions through its policies and instruments, in close partnership, of course, with Member States and civil society.
Ahead of the Roma Summit, I would like to inform this House that my colleague, Commissioner Andor, and I will publish a communication on the social inclusion of the Roma people, looking at the challenges ahead and outlining the EU’s contribution to meeting this challenge. This communication will then be the basis of the discussion in Córdoba.
As you know, this debate is taking place just some weeks before the second Roma Summit, which will be hosted in Córdoba by the Spanish Presidency on 8 and 9 April. The Commission welcomes and actively supports this initiative. I think this initiative will be a welcome moment to take stock of developments at national, European and international level since 2008. It will then help us to contribute to a common perspective for the future.
Two years ago, the first summit was held. How far have we got? You can see a glass as being half full or half empty. Of course, there have been significant improvements but there are also significant gaps. Your question rightly highlights the central role of the European Union’s instruments and policies and the importance of strengthening cooperation between all the key actors – Member States, institutions at European level, international organisations and civil society.
The Commission is committed to enforcing a directive which prohibits discrimination on the grounds of race and ethnic origin, and Roma discrimination is fully covered by this directive. We now have legislation at European level and the framework decision on racism and xenophobia, which will be a key tool to tackle the racism that Roma people suffer from.
By November of this year, all Member States should put into place criminal penalties for racist and xenophobic crimes, as laid down in the framework decision. As I have already announced, I am committed to monitoring the implementation of this framework decision as closely as possible.
The Commission is fully aware that this is not enough and that strong legislation needs to be complemented by information and awareness raising about rights and obligations. To this end, the Commission is addressing Roma issues in the context of the EU campaign ‘For Diversity. Against Discrimination’ and in specific training for legal practitioners.
Quite rightly, the structural funds, the rural development funds and the instruments for pre-accession were underlined as being important levers for change because they allow Member States to implement ambitious programmes which are targeted to the Roma. It is evident that these programmes must be very down to earth and pragmatic, based on evidence, and must approach the living conditions of the Roma in all their complexity.
This is not an issue that can be solved by a simple slogan. It needs a lot of concrete work. That is why the Commission is encouraging Member States to use the full potential of these funds to support Roma inclusion. To this end, we have launched a series of high-level bilateral visits to Member States with significant Roma populations. They should lead the concrete commitments with agreed targets. The first event took place in October 2009 in Hungary with the full cooperation of the government. Others will be organised in the future.
Another concrete example of the Commission’s commitment to using the Structural Funds for tackling Roma exclusion is the amendment that has been proposed to Article 7(2) of the Regulation on the European Regional Development Fund. A very large majority in this House voted for the report by your colleague, Mr van Nistelrooij, at the beginning of last month: a measure which opens new policy and funding opportunities for housing for the benefit of marginalised communities where we can target the Roma specifically, although not exclusively."@en1
|
| lpv:unclassifiedMetadata | |
| lpv:videoURI |
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples