5 November 2026

From Commitments to Enforcement: Delivering Roma, Sinti and Traveller Equality

Introduction

We, Roma, Sinti and Traveller-led and allied civil society organisations, welcome the European Roma Platform’s focus on education and employment. These are fundamental rights and must not be reduced to questions of economic productivity, labour-market participation or skills shortages.

Five years after the adoption of the 2021 Council Recommendation on Roma equality, inclusion and participation, the central challenge remains the persistent gap between political commitments and their implementation.

Across EU Member States and enlargement countries, national Roma strategies, EU funding and numerous policy initiatives have yet to overcome persistent segregation, structural antigypsyism, discrimination and unequal access to rights.  These continue to undermine the lives and opportunities of Roma, Sinti and Traveller communities across Europe. Progress remains uneven, enforcement is insufficient, and participation too often remains limited to consultation without meaningful influence over decisions.

The 2027 mid-term review of the EU Roma Strategic Framework must mark a shift from reporting activities and good practices towards demonstrating measurable results, institutional accountability and effective enforcement of fundamental rights. Relevant progress and commitments in enlargement countries must also be assessed through the appropriate enlargement monitoring and accession processes.

Irish Travellers and Roma in Ireland: From Recognition to Substantive Equality

Holding the European Roma Platform in Dublin provides an important opportunity to place the rights and experiences of Irish Travellers and Roma communities at the centre of European discussions on equality and inclusion.

While Irish Travellers have been formally recognised as a distinct ethnic minority since 2017, persistent inequalities in education, employment, accommodation and access to services demonstrate that recognition must be matched by effective implementation, enforcement and accountability.

We call on the Irish Government to ensure that the National Traveller and Roma Inclusion Strategy II (2024–2028) and the Traveller and Roma Education Strategy (2024–2030) deliver measurable improvements, including action against anti-Traveller racism, educational inequalities, employment discrimination and inadequate accommodation.

We call on European institutions to ensure that the distinct experiences of Traveller communities, including anti-Traveller racism, are adequately addressed in relevant European equality policies, monitoring frameworks and funding programmes, with meaningful participation of Traveller-led organisations.

The experiences of Irish Travellers and Roma in Ireland reflect wider challenges across Europe: the persistent gap between formal recognition, political commitments and the effective enjoyment of rights. Addressing these challenges requires coordinated action, enforceable obligations and meaningful accountability at national and European levels.

Our Common Demands

1. End school segregation and enforce equality legislation

School segregation is not simply an educational disadvantage. Ethnic segregation constitutes discrimination and must be addressed through effective enforcement of equality legislation.

We call on the European Commission, EU Member States and enlargement countries to:

• Adopt and implement enforceable, adequately funded and time-bound desegregation plans, with measurable school-level targets and clear institutional responsibilities.
• Ensure effective enforcement of the Racial Equality Directive in EU Member States, including infringement proceedings where they fail to fulfil their obligations, and support alignment with and effective implementation of EU equality standards in enlargement countries.
• Prevent EU funding from financing or perpetuating segregated education and require corrective action where discriminatory practices are identified.
• Guarantee equal access to quality early childhood education and inclusive mainstream schooling, with sustained support throughout primary and secondary education, including trained mediators, teaching support, accessible transport and pathways to higher education.
• Establish effective mechanisms to identify, monitor and address institutional antigypsyism across education systems, including discriminatory placement practices, unequal treatment, bullying, low expectations, exclusionary practices and systemic barriers to educational attainment. Ensure effective remedies and the meaningful involvement of independent equality bodies and Roma, Sinti and Traveller-led civil society organisations in monitoring and assessing corrective measures.

2. Guarantee access to decent and sustainable employment, free from discrimination

Increasing employment rates cannot be considered sufficient progress if Roma, Sinti and Traveller people face discrimination when seeking work or remain concentrated in precarious, low-paid or insecure employment. Structural and intersectional barriers linked to gender, nationality, residence status and documentation must be addressed alongside discrimination in recruitment and at work.

We call on the European Commission, EU Member States and enlargement countries to:

• Strengthen enforcement against discriminatory recruitment, unequal pay, workplace harassment and exploitative employment practices.
• Ensure that equality bodies, labour inspectorates and public employment services have the resources and powers necessary to investigate discrimination and provide effective remedies.
• Assess employment programmes against sustainable outcomes, including job quality, adequate wages, social protection, retention and career progression, rather than participation figures alone.
• Address the structural and intersecting barriers experienced by Roma, Sinti and Traveller women and young people, including intersecting discrimination, childcare responsibilities, transport, access to training and obstacles linked to residence or documentation status.
• Develop adequately funded, long-term employment and economic empowerment measures for Roma, Sinti and Traveller women and young people, including vocational training, entrepreneurship support, digital skills and access to quality employment. Design, implement and evaluate these measures in meaningful partnership with Roma, Sinti and Traveller-led organisations, while addressing intersectional discrimination.
• Remove discriminatory administrative and documentation barriers to employment, including obstacles to legal identity, residence registration and proof of citizenship, while safeguarding equal treatment and access to remedies.
• Ensure that public employment programmes create genuine pathways to the open labour market rather than reinforcing occupational segregation or dependency on temporary schemes.
• Develop long-term cooperation with employers to connect inclusive education and training with access to qualified, decent employment, while addressing discriminatory recruitment and workplace practices.

3. Address child poverty and structural exclusion through coordinated public policies

Educational and employment inequalities cannot be addressed independently of poverty, inadequate housing, healthcare, legal identity, social protection and access to essential services. These interconnected barriers require coordinated rights-based responses.

We call on the European Commission, EU Member States and enlargement countries to:

• Ensure that national Roma strategies and, for EU Member States, European Child Guarantee action plans include targeted, adequately financed measures to reduce Roma child poverty and exclusion, with corresponding child poverty measures in enlargement countries.
• Guarantee access to quality education, adequate housing, healthcare, civil registration, childcare, transport and essential services, particularly in segregated and deprived communities.
• Prevent unnecessary family separation arising from poverty or material deprivation by prioritising family support and effective social protection. Poverty alone must never justify removing a child from their family.
• Address discriminatory practices in child protection systems and ensure effective safeguards, access to justice and independent monitoring.
• Guarantee universal birth registration, access to legal identity documents and effective procedures for establishing or confirming citizenship, including measures to prevent and reduce statelessness. Ensure accessible legal assistance and remedies so documentation barriers do not exclude people from education, employment, healthcare or public services.
• Ensure meaningful participation of Roma, Sinti and Traveller children, families and civil society organisations in the development and assessment of policies affecting them.

4. Guarantee meaningful Roma, Sinti and Traveller participation and independent civil society

Participation cannot be reduced to consultation meetings, representation without influence or involvement only after decisions have been taken.

We call on the European Commission, EU Member States and enlargement countries to:

• Guarantee early, structured and adequately resourced participation of Roma, Sinti and Traveller-led organisations in policy design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation.
• Ensure meaningful decision-making opportunities for Roma, Sinti and Traveller representatives, including women’s, youth and grassroots organisations.
• Require public authorities to provide transparent feedback on civil society recommendations, explaining how they have influenced decisions.
• Establish sustainable, adequate, accessible and multiannual funding mechanisms for independent Roma, Sinti and Traveller-led civil society organisations, including direct core support for grassroots advocacy, community organising, independent monitoring and organisational capacity, alongside project funding. Reduce disproportionate administrative barriers so smaller community-based organisations can participate independently in policy processes.
• Protect the independence of civil society and ensure that organisations can criticise public policies, report discrimination and exercise their watchdog role without political interference, retaliation or adverse funding consequences for legitimate advocacy.
• Ensure that Roma, Sinti and Traveller-led organisations can access mainstream civil society funding programmes as well as targeted funding through proportionate requirements and accessible application procedures.

5. Secure explicit Roma equality commitments and safeguards in the 2028–2034 EU budget

The next Multiannual Financial Framework must strengthen, not dilute, existing commitments to Roma equality, inclusion and participation in EU Member States. EU pre-accession and enlargement financing must uphold equivalent expectations of measurable results, participation, transparency and safeguards against discrimination.

We call on EU institutions and Member States, and on the European Commission and enlargement countries in relation to relevant pre-accession instruments, to:

• Explicitly recognise Roma equality and inclusion within the 2028–2034 funding framework and National and Regional Partnership Plans.
• Preserve and strengthen effective enabling conditions linking EU funding to national Roma strategic frameworks and compliance with fundamental rights, while ensuring comparable rights-based safeguards and implementation requirements in pre-accession assistance.
• Require Roma-specific objectives, measurable milestones, indicators and transparent monitoring of investments.
• Ensure traceability of EU, national and pre-accession funding, including identifiable allocations, actual expenditure and results for Roma, Sinti and Traveller communities.
• Introduce effective safeguards against funding segregated or discriminatory practices, with corrective measures and financial consequences where legally justified.
• Guarantee meaningful participation of Roma, Sinti and Traveller-led civil society organisations in EU Member States and enlargement countries in the preparation, implementation and monitoring of funding plans, as well as direct and accessible funding opportunities.
• Ensure that pre-accession and enlargement funding instruments include Roma-specific objectives, independent monitoring and effective safeguards against segregated or discriminatory investments, in cooperation with Roma-led civil society.

6. Turn the 2027 mid-term review into a mechanism for accountability and corrective action

The mid-term review of the EU Roma Strategic Framework must not become another exercise in documenting strategies, initiatives and examples of good practice. It should also inform coherent monitoring of Roma equality commitments in enlargement countries, without conflating the EU Framework review with formal accession assessments.

We call on the European Commission and Member States, with relevant follow-up by enlargement countries through their respective monitoring and accession processes, to:

• Assess progress against the Framework’s 2030 targets through measurable outcomes, independent evidence and transparent national reporting.
• Identify unmet commitments, institutional failures, intersectional barriers, budgetary gaps and the corrective measures required.
• Require EU Member States to establish time-bound implementation plans, with clear responsibilities assigned to relevant ministries and public authorities, and seek equivalent implementation commitments through enlargement monitoring and accession dialogue.
• Strengthen the accountability and operational capacity of National Roma Contact Points to coordinate implementation across government.
• Establish structured and adequately resourced mechanisms for independent Roma, Sinti and Traveller civil society participation in the mid-term review and ensure comparable opportunities for Roma, Sinti and Traveller-led civil society in enlargement-country monitoring and follow-up.
• Ensure that the findings of the review directly inform EU policy priorities, funding decisions and implementation follow-up, and that relevant lessons are reflected in enlargement policy and pre-accession assistance.

7. Make Roma equality a substantive priority throughout the EU enlargement process

Roma equality, inclusion and participation must be treated as an integral part of the EU accession process, not as a secondary social inclusion objective.

Despite the adoption of national Roma strategies across the Western Balkans and other enlargement countries, serious challenges remain in combating antigypsyism, school segregation, discrimination, poverty, inadequate housing, barriers to legal identity and proof of citizenship, and exclusion from decision-making. Formal alignment with European standards must be matched by demonstrable implementation. Seven years after the 2019 Poznań Declaration, its commitments require independent assessment against measurable changes in Roma people’s rights and living conditions.

Previous EU enlargements demonstrate that accession conditionality can create important incentives for advancing Roma equality, but political attention and implementation can weaken when accession leverage diminishes. The EU must ensure that accountability, independent monitoring and enforcement continue after accession.

We call on the European Commission, enlargement governments and relevant EU institutions to:

• Systematically assess Roma equality, antigypsyism and the implementation of national Roma strategies and the Poznań Declaration commitments in annual enlargement reporting, accession dialogue and relevant negotiating processes, including their fundamental rights dimensions.
• Require time-bound national measures with measurable targets, adequate budgets and clear institutional responsibilities, particularly in education, employment, housing, access to civil registration and reduction of statelessness, and access to justice.
• Ensure that EU pre-accession and enlargement funding supports measurable improvements in Roma equality, with transparent expenditure, independent monitoring and safeguards against discriminatory or segregating investments.
• Strengthen the mandate, resources and political authority of National Roma Contact Points in enlargement countries and ensure effective coordination across responsible ministries.
• Ensure that Roma, Sinti and Traveller-led civil society organisations in enlargement countries are systematically involved in preparing, monitoring and assessing accession-related reforms, relevant negotiating processes and EU-funded programmes. Establish transparent consultation mechanisms and ensure that independent civil society assessments inform evaluations of progress on fundamental rights, equality and non-discrimination, with sustainable funding for participation.
• Address persistent barriers to legal identity and proof of citizenship, including unresolved statelessness risks. Sustain legal aid, specialist capacity and cross-border casework, particularly where fundingcuts threaten previous progress.
• Ensure that Roma equality commitments are not treated as fulfilled through the adoption of legislation or strategies alone, but assessed against implementation, enforcement and outcomes.
• Explain transparently how progress and persistent shortcomings in Roma equality affect enlargement assessments, accession negotiations and relevant funding decisions, and establish mechanisms to sustain accountability after accession.
• Commission an independent, publicly available assessment of the implementation of the 2019 Poznań Declaration, with meaningful participation of Roma, Sinti and Traveller-led civil society and clear recommendations for corrective action.
• Ensure that Roma are included in transitional justice and reconciliation measures, recognised as equal members of their societies, and that their history and experiences are reflected in national narratives, particularly in countries affected by armed conflicts in recent decades.
• Ensure that the rights and needs of Roma in Ukraine are addressed in all assistance and recovery programmes supported by the European Union and individual Member States.
• Ensure coherent cooperation between DG JUST, DG ENEST, DG HOME and other relevant Commission services so that the objectives of the EU Roma Strategic Framework are consistently reflected in enlargement policy, fundamental rights assessments and financial assistance.

8. Strengthen DG JUST’s coordinating role and accountability for the EU Roma Strategic Framework

Implementation of the EU Roma Strategic Framework is a shared responsibility across the European Commission and EU Member States. Coherent action on Roma equality in enlargement countries also requires coordination with the Commission services and national authorities responsible for accession and pre-accession assistance. Effective coordination requires clear institutional leadership, systematic monitoring and follow-up.

As the Commission service responsible for coordinating the EU Roma Strategic Framework, DG JUST must play a stronger role in ensuring that Roma equality commitments are translated into action across EU policies, national strategies and funding instruments, in close cooperation with DG ENEST and other services on enlargement-related commitments.

We call on the European Commission, through DG JUST, to:

• Strengthen cross-Commission coordination with DG EMPL, DG EAC, DG REGIO, DG ENEST, DG HOME and other relevant services, ensuring that Roma equality is systematically integrated into education, employment, social protection, child rights and child protection, migration, temporary and international protection, returns, anti-racism, enlargement and funding policies.
• Establish structured implementation follow-up with Member States, particularly where national strategies show persistent shortcomings, identifying required improvements, responsible authorities and timelines.
• Use Commission implementation reports as instruments for accountability, with clear country-specific findings, recommendations and follow-up on previously identified gaps, rather than primarily documenting national measures.
• Strengthen the National Roma Contact Points network, including by assessing whether contact points have sufficient institutional authority, staff, resources and access to relevant ministries and funding decisions.
• Ensure consistency between policy commitments and EU funding, coordinating with the services responsible for EU programmes to identify gaps, monitor investments and address risks of discrimination or segregation.
• Guarantee structured dialogue with independent Roma, Sinti and Traveller civil society, including regular exchanges on implementation findings, transparent feedback on recommendations and meaningful involvement in the 2027 mid-term review.
• Strengthen transparency and political accountability, including regular public reporting on the Commission’s own actions to implement the Framework and follow up on persistent shortcomings.

DG JUST’s coordinating responsibility must be supported by the political commitment of the Commission as a whole. Roma equality cannot remain confined to a single unit or policy portfolio; it must be treated as a cross-cutting institutional responsibility.

9. Maintain European cooperation with Roma, Sinti and Traveller communities beyond the EU and the accession process

Roma, Sinti and Traveller equality is a European human rights concern that extends beyond EU membership.

We call for continued cooperation with Roma, Sinti and Traveller communities and organisations in the United Kingdom, particularly on education, employment, housing, discrimination and access to rights.

Relevant European institutions, including the Council of Europe, should provide opportunities for Roma, Sinti and Traveller-led organisations beyond the EU and accession process to contribute to European policy dialogue and exchanges of practice, while recognising the distinct experiences and rights of these communities.

What We Expect from the Dublin Platform

The European Roma Platform must be more than a space for exchanging good practices and reiterating political commitments. Its credibility depends on whether civil society recommendations influence decisions and whether institutions report back on action taken.

We call on the European Commission, Member States and enlargement governments to ensure concrete follow-up through:

1. Public accountability: Clear responses to persistent implementation gaps, particularly in education, employment, discrimination and participation.
2. Institutional responsibility: Identification of responsible authorities, measurable objectives and implementation timelines.
3. Stronger Commission coordination: DG JUST-led follow-up across relevant Commission services, Member States and the enlargement process.
4. Funding commitments: Adequate and traceable resources, with effective safeguards against segregation and discrimination.
5. Civil society influence: Structured participation of Roma, Sinti and Traveller-led organisations in the 2027 mid-term review and preparation of the next EU funding period.
6. Transparent follow-up: The European Commission should report annually on the implementation of commitments made at previous European Roma Platforms and civil society recommendations, including decisions taken, responsible institutions, outstanding gaps and corrective action.
7. Meaningful civil society participation and accountability: Ensure that Roma, Sinti and Traveller-led civil society organisations, particularly grassroots organisations, are directly involved in shaping, implementing and monitoring commitments made at the Dublin Platform, with clear mechanisms to ensure that their recommendations are considered and reflected in concrete policy decisions.
8. Maintain the annual European Roma Platform: The European Commission should maintain the European Roma Platform as an annual forum for political dialogue, meaningful civil society participation and accountability. Reducing its frequency would weaken opportunities for Roma, Sinti and Traveller civil society to engage directly with European institutions and national authorities, particularly at a critical stage in the implementation of the EU Roma Strategic Framework. Regular dialogue and follow-up between annual meetings must also be ensured.