Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-09-07-Speech-2-391"
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"en.20100907.28.2-391"2
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"Mr President, as in the past, I will also always be available in the future for discussing Roma issues.
But we need to have a long-term strategy. Nobody should believe that there is a silver bullet – some kind of quick fix to this problem – and that it is just a matter of finding a quick solution. We have to have a long-term strategy. We have a long-term strategy, namely Europe 2020 with a strong commitment to combating poverty and numerical targets. The Member States are working on their own reform programmes. It will simply not be acceptable if, in the countries where Roma live in high numbers, a strong commitment is not made in the poverty reduction programme for the Roma communities in terms of employment and, equally importantly, education.
Early childhood education is key. Commissioner Vassiliou is with us in spirit in all these discussions, and will also participate in the taskforce suggested by Viviane Reding when it comes into force. It starts with early childhood education and continues with a proper preparation for participating in the labour market. But it really is an uphill struggle and it will take a lot of energy.
However, I would agree with all those who emphasise that we should also take the immediate situation seriously and not only speak about the long-term plans for integration. Indeed, there is a risk of rising racism and xenophobia. As the President said in his speech this morning, these have absolutely no place in the European Union.
Let me concentrate my part of the answer on a few key points. At the beginning of this year, soon after this Commission entered office, my first official visit was to Paris at the opening conference of the European Year for Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion. I was really impressed with the atmosphere and with the very sincere intention of NGOs and government officials to tackle poverty and work together for what we later formulated as Europe 2020 objectives.
It should go without saying that the events of the last two months were not what we envisaged or encouraged in February in Paris. This is a disappointment for many of us and I understand that part of this House which is very critical of these developments.
However, even if we understand the very complex nature of these issues, I think we should turn our attention to the much more scandalous situation that exists in the countries of origin of the Roma people who now face very difficult situations since France and other countries have decided to expel them. We are speaking about ten million people, many of them living in impossible situations.
It is not true, as I heard in one of the statements today, that these people were never integrated. It is not true that the Roma are culturally – or for any other reason – unable to integrate with mainstream societies. I have to state here that, although again it is a complex issue, before 1989, most of the Roma people had jobs. They were very often poor and held unskilled jobs, but they were integrated to a certain degree in the labour market and had a basic level of livelihood.
We have to make it very clear that the economic transition was also a disruption. The Roma clearly became the main victims of this transitional period. If we do not appreciate, this we will fail to understand the origin of the problem today and fail to appreciate how great the efforts needed are. These have to be European efforts because the countries affected do not have sufficient resources, energy and commitment to tackle the problems alone.
I would like to reject categorically the assumption – or accusation – that the Commission has only noticed now that some of this money – the Social Fund and the structural funds – does not reach the targets and does not deliver.
We discussed this very frankly in Córdoba with the involvement of George Soros. We discussed it in the parliamentary conference chaired by Mr Swoboda; and there are other meetings which are destined to tackle this. The two-day ESF conference in June also gave attention to this matter, as has the conference currently taking place in Budapest. Similar conferences are scheduled for Bulgaria and Slovakia next year. The main one, in which President Băsescu is also expected to participate, will take place in October in Bucharest and it will exclusively focus on how the European funds could be better used to tackle these problems.
We have been very active, together with Parliament, in establishing the new micro-finance facility. One of the key arguments for the micro-finance facility was the fact that marginalised communities – and particularly the Roma – are not reached sufficiently and assisted by the mainstream financial sector or even by the European funding facilities."@en1
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