Author: Annamaria Psenkova

ERGO Network position paper on Roma poverty in Europe A contribution to the EU’s Anti-Poverty Strategy and beyond

Today, 17 October, on the occasion of the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, ERGO Network is proud to launch its new position paper, “Ending Roma Poverty in the EU”.

=> Read the full position paper here

The paper is ERGO Network’s contribution to the debate around the EU’s upcoming – and first-ever – Anti-Poverty Strategy, and calls for Roma poverty to be recognised and addressed as a structural injustice rooted in systemic racism, antigypsyism, and economic inequality.

Despite some progress, poverty among Roma across Europe remains alarmingly high: three out of four Roma are at risk of poverty, and 77% of Roma children grow up in households below the poverty threshold. These figures point to the urgent need for targeted, rights-based measures that go beyond economic indicators to tackle the root causes of exclusion.

The position paper sets out concrete recommendations for the EU and Member States to make the Anti-Poverty Strategy truly transformative. It calls for:

• embedding the EU Roma poverty-reduction target (cutting Roma poverty by at least 50% by 2030) in all anti-poverty efforts;
• integrating antigypsyism prevention and anti-racism measures as core pillars;
• ensuring equal access to social protection, housing, education, healthcare, and decent work; and
• guaranteeing the meaningful participation of Roma communities in the design, implementation, and monitoring of anti-poverty policies.

ERGO Network stresses that poverty is not an individual failure, but a political choice, and that ending Roma poverty is essential to achieving a fair, inclusive, and equal Europe for all.

For more information on ERGO Network’s work on Roma poverty, please contact Amana Ferro, Senior Policy Adviser, at a.ferro@ergonetwork.org

CALL FOR APPLICATIONS: EXTERNAL EVALUATION OF THE ROVA PROJECT

Deadline to apply:  15 November 2025 
Budget: Maximum €13,000 
Evaluation period: Flexible, finalised by December 2027 

The European Roma Grassroots Organisations (ERGO) Network is seeking an experienced external evaluator to conduct an evaluation of the ROVA project (2025–2027). The EU-funded project supports 120 Roma and pro-Roma civil society organisations and 15 national Roma coalitions across the EU through grants, capacity-building, and coalition building, with a total budget of €6.2 million. 

About the evaluation 

The evaluator will assess the project’s relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, impact, and sustainability, applying methods of empowerment evaluation and involving end beneficiaries. The process should include desk review, interviews, focus groups, and a final evaluation workshop with the project consortium. 

The evaluator will: 

• Propose and implement an evaluation framework that they will implement in partnership with the project consortium 
• Measure progress on both quantitative and qualitative indicators 
• Assess the impact on third-party grantees, and where possible on their target groups 
• Provide strategic recommendations for future grant-making 

Consultant profile:

• Proven experience with programme evaluations, ideally with re-granting 
• Strong understanding of Roma issues and EU policies 
• Experience with civil society, advocacy, and capacity-building 
• Excellent research, analytical, and communication skills 
• Ability to work independently and collaboratively with diverse stakeholders 

How to apply:

• Interested consultants or teams should submit: 
• A proposal outlining methodology, timeline, and budget 
• CV highlighting relevant experience 
• References or a sample of previous evaluations 
• Please send your application to rova_ergo@ergonetwork.org by 15 November with the subject line: ROVA Evaluation Proposal. 

For more information:

European Commission releases Spring Package 2025: What’s in it for Europe’s Roma?

On 4 June 2025, the European Commission published the Spring Package in the framework of the 2025 European Semester, comprising (among others) 27 Country Reports, 27 Country-Specific Recommendations, and a Communication on the Spring Package. ERGO Network and its national members reviewed the Package to see to what extent it explicitly mentions Roma rights and inclusion, ethnic minorities, discrimination, and racism (including antigypsyism), as well as to assess whether national civil society was involved in the drafting of its documents.

• 1. The Communication on the Spring Package mentions the Roma once, exclusively regarding increasing their labour market participation – but nothing on health, housing, education, discrimination.
• 2. 9 Country Reports include references to the Roma (BG, CZ, GR, HU, IE, RO, SK, SI, ES) in 2025, one more than in 2024, but still insufficient, as the Roma live in 26 EU Member States.
• 3. There are 5 Country-Specific Recommendations on Roma (BG, CZ, HU, RO, SK), who are also mentioned in 7 Preambles (same + GR, ES), a significant improvement since before 2019.
• 4. Ethnic minorities feature in 3 Country Reports (BG, CZ, SK), and discrimination is mentioned in 8 of them (AT, BE, CY, IT, IE, PT, ES, SE). None of the terms appear in any part of the CSRs.
• 5. (Roma) Civil society was poorly associated to the drafting of the Country Reports, but it is mentioned in 8 of them (EE, FR, GR, MT, PT, RO, SI, SE), and in all Preambles of the CSRs.

ERGO Network and its members are delighted to see a return of Roma CSRs, with 5 Member States receiving one, on the backdrop of the overall return to more comprehensive recommendations, including on social inclusion for most countries. We are equally pleased with a high number of references to the Roma and their plight in as many as 9 Country Reports.

 However, whereas the Roma are present in all Member States except Malta, and experience rates of poverty and social exclusion of over 80% in most of them (and almost 100% in some), we would have liked to see them more comprehensively mainstreamed in the Spring Package, including for a number of other Member States.

The recurrent focus on competitiveness as well as productivity and curbing public spending spells dire times for social inclusion, human rights, and equality. It is our members’ experience that, unless the Roma are explicitly named as key target beneficiaries of support measures, and unless specific measures and resources are dedicated to them, mainstream initiatives and broad national and EU funds end up not reaching them.

Our members equally express disappointment that issues of discrimination and antigypsyism are largely absent from the present Package, while these phenomena have increased in recent years. The fact that the country analyses and recommendations do not seek to establish explicit synergies with the EU and national Roma Frameworks, and with the National Action Plans against Racism, is considered a significant missed opportunity.

Finally, ERGO Network members deplore the lack of recognition and support given to civil society organisations in the two country documents, given that most of them are not only on the frontlines, providing essential support to communities in need, but they equally possess the knowledge, expertise, and direct links to beneficiaries which are needed to inform the design of sustainable and effective public policies.

For more information about ERGO Network’s work on the European Semester, contact Senior Policy Adviser Amana Ferro.