Participation – Page 2

Socio-economic inclusion and the fight against antigypsyism should complement each other

Socio-economic inclusion and the fight against antigypsyism should complement each other

Open letter to
European Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Olivér Várhelyi
Western Balkan Heads of Economies and Governments of Albania, Bosnia and Herzgovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Turkey
Secretary General of the Regional Cooperation Council Majlinda Bregu
Slovenian Presidency of the Council of the European Union
German Federal Foreign Office

As (pro-)Roma civil society organisations active in the Western Balkans and Turkey, we would like to draw your attention to the serious shortcomings of the Conclusions of the Second Ministerial Meeting on Roma Integration of the Ministers of the Western Balkans responsible for Roma integration on 28 June 2021. The Conclusions unfortunately do not make any reference to the fight against antigypsyism or at least to the fight against discrimination, despite respective obligations of the „Neighbourhood and Enlargement Countries”.

In June 2019, the Prime Ministers of the Western Balkans signed the “Declaration of Western Balkans Partners on Roma Integration within the EU Enlargement Process”, the so-called Poznan Declaration. In this Declaration they reiterate their “commitment for integration of Roma in their societies and pledge to step up their efforts as part of the European Union enlargement process and regional cooperation.”

The Prime Ministers pledged to strengthen their government structures to protect against discrimination and to establish specific sub-divisions for non-discrimination of Roma within formal non-discrimination bodies to process complaints by Roma, provide legal support to alleged victims and identify discrimination schemes, including institutional and hidden discrimination.

Further, they pledged to envisage a stronger role of the Western Balkans partners in the European Union’s post 2020 policy on Roma integration by ensuring their participation o in the process in an observer status at minimum.

In September 2020, the European Parliament adopted the Report on the Implementation of National Roma Integration Strategies: combating negative attitudes towards people with Romani background in Europe, requesting inter alia a legislative proposal for the equality, inclusion and participation of Romani people and combating antigypsyism.

In October 2020, the European Union adopted the new “EU Roma Strategic Framework for Equality, Inclusion and Participation”, which is equally relevant for the countries in the Western Balkans. The new EU Framework identifies as a key priority the fight against antigypsyism as the root cause of social exclusion and racial or ethnic discrimination.

In March 2021, the Commission reaffirmed the importance of this new Framework when endorsing the EU Council Recommendations on Roma Equality, Inclusion and Participation. The recommendations also refer to the responsibilities of the bodies for the promotion of equal treatment (‘equality bodies’) and assign them an important role in the fight against antigypsyism.

Following all these political declarations and recommendations, the fight against antigypsyism – the specific racism towards Roma – as the root cause of social exclusion and discrimination should have been in the focus of governments’ commitment in the Western Balkans.

However, neither the Conclusions of the Ministerial Meeting on Roma Integration on 27 October 2020 nor the Conclusions of the Second Ministerial Meeting on Roma Integration on 28 June 2021 make any reference to the fight against antigypsyism or at least to the fight against discrimination.

Instead, they focus on employment measures, completion of the geographic mapping exercise of Roma settlements, registration and the inclusion of Roma in the EU Green Deal. These are all very relevant issues that should be urgently addressed, but they all fall short of addressing the root cause of the exclusion of Roma.

This approach is not only in contradiction to the commitments of the Poznan Declaration and the new EU Roma Framework, it will also negatively affect the effectiveness of any other measure.

It is common knowledge that measures in the socio-economic sphere will have a limited impact if antigypsyism is not tackled. Experience demonstrates that without fighting racism among potential employers and colleagues, for example, active labour market measures are less effective, since racism among employers and colleagues is one of the major obstacles for the employment of Roma.

According to the Balkan Barometer, 25% of the interviewed persons are uncomfortable or somewhat uncomfortable working with a Romani person. 30% are uncomfortable or somewhat uncomfortable buying a product from a Romani person (or produced by a Romani person). This data should make it clear that it is indispensable to fight antigypsyism.

Active labour market measures, including the need to formalise work, are indispensable. They should, however, not only be implemented in the private sector, but also in the public sector, not least since all governments have legal obligations to promote employment of Roma in the public sector – what they have so far failed to adhere to.

The Poznan Declaration stipulates to “increase the employment rate of Roma in the public sector to the rate proportional of the number of Roma in the overall population and to increase the employment rate among Roma to at least 25 per cent”. However, none of the conclusions of the Ministerial Meetings refer to this pledge.

Looking at more general attitudes of the majority populations towards Roma, things are even worse: 68% of respondents feel uncomfortable or somewhat uncomfortable with marrying a Romani person or if their child would marry a Romani person. 33% are uncomfortable or somewhat uncomfortable inviting a Romani person to their house and 26% are uncomfortable or somewhat uncomfortable if their children attend school together with Romani children.

Against this background, it is difficult to understand why governments in the Western Balkans do not take the fight against antigypsyism serious and step up their efforts, and why European Union institutions and individual Member States are reluctant to encourage the governments in the Western Balkans to finally start fighting racism.
As long as this approach will not change, the current efforts in employment, housing, registration, etc. remain mere lip services, since they omit to fight the root cause for the social exclusion and discrimination of Roma in the Western Balkans.
Equality Bodies and Ombudspersons could play a crucial role in fighting antigypsyism, and with further intensifying the cooperation with Romani civil society they could achieve an impact in society and politics.

We therefore call upon the governments in the Western Balkans, the institutions of the European Union as well as individual Member States of the European Union to increase their efforts in the fight against antigypsyism in the Western Balkans by:

Conducting public awareness campaigns on fighting antigypsyism;
Establishing close cooperation with the Romani civil society in fighting antigypsyism;
Conducting regular trainings on fighting antigypsyism for several target groups, involving Roma as trainers;
Contributing to creating new policy and legal frameworks for fighting antigypsyism;
Ensuring the participation of Roma in Equality Bodies and Ombudsperson Institutions;
Including a specific chapter on the situation of Roma or on antigypsyism in the regular reports to the Parliaments.

Signatories:
Roma Active Albania, Otaharin (Bosnia and Herzegovina), Voice of Roma, Ashkali and Egyptians (Kosovo), Advancing Together (Kosovo), Phiren Amenca (Montenegro), RROMA (North Macedonia), Forum Roma Serbia (Serbia), Zero Discrimination Association (Turkey), Central Council of German Sinti and Roma (Germany), ERGO Network (Belgium)

DG JUST widens dialogue with civil society

DG JUST widens dialogue with Roma civil society and anti-racism civil society organisations

In its intention to ensure a greater transparency and inclusion of wider Roma and pro-Roma civil society organisations at national level in implementing the EU Roma Roma Framework on equality, inclusion and participation, the European Commission launched a call for expression of interest to NGOs in supporting the work at European Union level and their readiness to participate in consultation processes. All CSOs who expressed their interest will be informed regularly about important policy developments. Moreover, according to the experience and knowledge of the organisations, based on the information provided in the expression of interest, the Commission services will determine the list of CSOs and/or alliances of CSOs who will be invited to contribute to consultation processes, in particular on the monitoring of the implementation of the Roma policies at EU level. All expressions of interest by the 22 June 2021 will be carefully reviewed based on outreach capacity, work topics, expertise, size and type of CSO as well as the following criteria:

independent status and legal registration in the EU, featuring a democratic decision-making mechanism as well as a mission and values aligned with those of the European Commission;
proven expertise of at least 3 years in one or more of the following: policy, research, advocacy work concerning Roma equality, inclusion and participation, as well as legitimacy of the CSO’s representations (community ties, accountability to beneficiaries and/or members);
respect for pluralism of opinion, tolerance and personal integrity of the representatives is mandatory;
good working knowledge of English as this is the working language of CSO consultation meetings; and
demonstrated ability to engage in constructive dialogue with other governmental and/or non-governmental organizations is highly valued.

In addition, the applicants have to be registered in the EU Transparency registry, proving their legal constitution, including proof of grant of legal personality, evidence of internal rules procedure, audited financial statement for the last 2 years or any other official document demonstrating the annual income; annual activity reports for the last 2 years or any other published reports or research as evidence of Roma-relevant work; and CV(s) of the CSO representative(s).

For the above mentioned call more information can be found here.

A similar call has been launched for anti-racism civil society organisations or the implementation of the EU Anti-racism action plan with a small difference in that there is no minimum limit on the years of proven expertise in the case of antiracism CSOs and that in their case they should have worked on at least one or more of the following: policy, research, advocacy work concerning racial and ethnic equality and anti-racism; and in at least one or more of the following thematic areas: racial justice, equality, reparations and decolonisation, anti-migrant racism.

More information about the anti-racism CSO call can be found here.

Different than in the case of Roma organisations, antiracism CSOs fear that this mechanism could restrict access of more radical NGOs, including pro-Muslim associations which have been banned or accused of inciting to hatred, for being vocal against Islamophobia, particularly in France, under the leadership of President Emmanuel Macron. With a growing victimization of human rights defenders and NGOs, EU institutions should ensure depolitization of antiracism civil society work and build further trust and cooperation with antiracism NGOs.

For more information about ERGO Network’s work on anti racism contact Isabela Mihalache , Senior Policy Adviser in the ERGO Network Brussels team.

Conference on the Future of Europe: call to include marginalised communities

Open letter to Executive Board: civil society organisations call for Conference to include marginalised communities

The Conference on the Future of Europe is a citizen-led series of debates and discussions that will enable people from across Europe to share their ideas and help shape our common future that was opened on 19th June. However, marginalised communities are hardly considered in the conference. ERGO Network alongside many other organisations signed an open letter prepared by Citizens Takeover Europe calling to include marginalised communities

The inaugural meeting of the Plenary of the Conference on the Future of Europe took place on 19 June, but the Conference risks excluding marginalised communities, undermining the whole exercise.With several civil society organisations and networks, we have drafted an open letter to the Conference Executive Board, calling upon them to address our concerns:

Dear Co-Chairs and Members of the Executive Board,

The inaugural plenary of the Conference on the Future of Europe is taking place on Saturday, 19th of June. According to the Joint Declaration, the Conference aims “to give citizens a say on what matters to them,” and to take action in response. However, we fear that the Conference will lead to the further marginalisation of citizens and residents that are already sidelined given the process and plans that have been made until now.

The Conference has so far not made adequate provisions to include marginalised and underrepresented communities. The European Citizens’ Panels are the main innovation of the Conference, and a key instrument to reach underrepresented people. Unfortunately, no quotas have been set to ensure the representation of underrepresented groups such as racialised people, LGBTQI+ people, people with disabilities, etc. Additionally, EU residents without EU passports and non-binary people seem to be categorically excluded from the panels. Furthermore, the Conference Plenary – the main decision-making body – does not seem to foresee adequate representation of these groups either.

It is no secret that political institutions, and the European Union in particular, have failed at times to include marginalised communities in their work. For this reason, many people from marginalised communities do not feel represented by the very institutions that are meant to serve them. Instead, they perceive them as contributing to their oppression.

It is in our common interest that this Conference becomes a success, but it can only become a success if all of Europe’s citizens and residents are provided access, included and treated as equal partners in this dialogue. If the EU fails to involve the most marginalised in our society, it will not only fail these communities but it will also fail to gather crucial knowledge about fundamental societal challenges, and the appropriate measures needed to build stronger, inclusive and cohesive societies.

We urge you to meet with us in the coming period to consider the concerns expressed in this letter, and to consult with organisations representing and working with marginalised communities such as some of the co-signatories of this letter.

Moreover, we call on you to develop a strategy of inclusion in relation to the Conference to ensure that marginalised communities are adequately represented and involved in the Conference, and to do so in consultation with civil society actors. We are at your disposal to support this process.

Together we win, divided we fall. We will only make this Conference succeed if it includes all citizens and residents.

We look forward to hearing back from you.

Sincerely,

Provisional list of civil society organisations co-signing the letter:

#DiasporaVote!
A Buon Diritto Onlus
Alliance4Europe
Allwedo e.V.
Balkan Civil Society Development Network (BCSDN)
BIL:Armenia
Citizens Take Over Europe
Civil Society Europe
Culture Action Europe (CAE)
ECOLISE
EFF – European Future Forum
Equinox Initiative for Racial Justice
Eurochild
Europe for Scotland
European Alternatives
European Anti-Poverty Organisation
European Association for the Education of Adults
European Center for Not-for-profit Law Stichting (ECNL)
European Citizen Action Service (ECAS)
European Civic Forum
European Environmental Bureau
European Federation of National Organisations Working with the Homeless
European Forum of Muslim Women
European House
European Movement Italy
European Network Against Racism
European Network on Religion and Belief (ENORB)
European Pride Organisers Association (EPOA)
European Roma Grassroots Organisations Network
European Youth Parliament
Extinction Rebellion Czech Republic
Generation Climate Europe (GCE)
Gong
Greek Forum of Migrants
Green liberty
IGLYO
Institute of Public Affairs
Junge Islam Konferenz
KISA – Equality, Support, Antiracism
Mundo en Movimiento
Music Theatre International
Oxfam
PICUM – Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants
Regional Roma Educational Youth Assocation-RROMA
School of Political Hope
Schwarzkopf Stiftung
SDG Watch Europe
Society for Sustainable Living/STUŽ
SOLIDAR
Stand Up For Europe
Tereza Čejková
The ECI Campaign
The European Council of doctoral candidates and junior researchers (Eurodoc)
The Good Lobby
Understanding Europe
Young European Federalists (JEF)

Civil society organisations can co-sign this letter by filling out the following form. The deadline is Friday, 18th of June, 18:00 CEST. The letter will be sent to the members of the Executive Board on Saturday morning, 19th of June.

Meaningful participation is key

Securing meaningful participation: a key element of success for the EU anti-racism action plan

Open letter to EU Commission President von der Leyen, Vice-President Jourova and Commissioner Dalli

As organisations working to achieve racial equality and justice, we welcome the EU Action Plan Against Racism published by the European Commission on 18 September 2020. For the first time, the EU explicitly acknowledges the existence of structural, institutional and historical dimensions of racism in Europe and the need to address them through wide-ranging policies. There are a number of positive proposals in the action plan, in line with what ENAR has been calling for, but also gaps that need to be addressed.

Many plans against racism in the past have remained on paper. In order to avoid this and fulfil the potential of this action plan to improve the lives of people affected by racism, there must be strong processes in place to ensure that it is implemented, with clear and measurable targets, and that progress is monitored.

The processes related to this plan are as important as its content as they will allow for its legitimacy, ownership and most importantly, its efficiency in countering structural racism. There should be a strong focus on ensuring that racialised groups with key expertise from civil society organisations are consulted and engaged in a meaningful and timely manner on the implementation of the plan.

We welcome the fact that the plan foresees some mechanisms to secure resources particularly by strengthening participation of civil society organisations working with racialised groups, including:

1. The appointment of an EU anti-racism coordinator.
2. At least two meetings per year with civil society organisations active in the fight against racism at European, national and local levels.
3. Existing high-level groups on racism and non-discrimination playing an important role in implementation and cooperation.
4. The new internal Task Force on Equality ensuring racial equality mainstreaming and consultation.
5. Funding for civil society available under the Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values Programme and Horizon Europe.

We call on the European Commission to ensure that the action plan is a meaningful EU tool to address structural racism with adequate resources and expertise, by strengthening the following processes:

1. A structured and permanent participatory mechanism for civil society

There should be strong mechanisms in place to regularly involve EU and NGOs including racialised groups in policy discussions, design and implementation, to ensure policies meaningfully address issues of racialised groups according to their lived experiences and unique expertise. This is even more crucial considering the lack of racial diversity in institutions currently in Europe. We need a clear structure allowing civil society to be in a regular dialogue with the European Commission.

The European Commission should therefore set up a permanent European Commission advisory committee on anti-racism involving NGOs, Member States and social partners to support the implementation of policies, in particular the framework of National Action Plans against Racism.

In addition, the mandate of the two high-level groups on combating racism and on non-discrimination should be strengthened, by widening their scope to include structural and institutional racial discrimination. They should also be both opened to participation of civil society and supported by a regular steering group of European umbrella NGOs working on anti-racism and non-discrimination.

2. An operational and anti-racism expert profile for the EU coordinator against racism

The coordinator should play a key role in overseeing the implementation of the plan, and coordinating actions across different policy areas in the European Commission, closely liaising with civil society organisations.

To that end, this person should be appointed based on relevant skills and competences, have strong expertise on anti-racism issues and intersectionality, and be from a racialised group. This person should have a good knowledge of anti-racism movements in Europe to secure engagement and participation of a wide diversity of civil society experts. We also request that the recruitment process is fair, clear and transparent.

Moreover, the coordinator should be strongly supported by a dedicated team, in close collaboration with existing services of the European Commission.

3. Clear coordination of anti-racism work within the European Commission

We welcome the comprehensive anti-racism framework laid out in the Action Plan. However, it is important to clarify how the coordinator and different services will work together to coordinate and monitor its progress. To improve efficiency of the work and coordination among the different strands of work highlighted in the Action Plan, we call for:
• The Commission Directorate General for Justice’s services to be organised by re-grouping all teams working on different forms of racism and racial discrimination in one unit, with more resources allocated and a strengthened mandate of the Commissioner for Equality to oversee this work, under the direct supervision of President Ursula von der Leyen.
• The task force for equality to closely work with this unit, to include a specific working group on racial equality mainstreaming, to ensure transparency about its work and to involve civil society.

4. Dedicated funding

The EU anti-racism action plan should be implemented with dedicated and adequate human and financial resources, including via specific budget lines for the European Commission’s services. Funding should be secured for the implementation of EU and national action plans against racism, in addition to specific priorities under the Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values Programme and the European Structural Funds.

We would welcome the opportunity to meet with you to present these demands in more details and discuss together how to move forward.

Yours sincerely,

Karen Taylor, Chair of the European Network Against Racism

Co-signed by:

1. Adé Olaiya, UNESCO Inclusive Policy Lab Expert
2. Altera (Italy)
3. Anti-Racist Forum (Finland)
4. Apna Haq (UK)
5. Asociación Musulmana por los Derechos Humanos – AMDEH (Spain)
6. Bepax (Belgium)
7. Center for Intersectional Justice – CIJ
8. Center for Peace Studies (Croatia)
9. Central Council for German Sinti and Roma (Germany)
10. Collective against Islamophobia in Belgium – CCIB (Belgium)
11. Competence network against Islamophobia and anti-Muslim hatred (CLAIM, ZEOK e.V., aej e.V.) (Germany)
12. Conseil représentatif des associations noires de France – CRAN (France)
13. Czech Helsinki Committee (Czech Republic)
14. Dokumentations- und Beratungsstelle Islamfeindlichkeit & antimuslimischer Rassismus -Dokustelle (Austria)
15. Each One Teach One (Germany)
16. ENAR Denmark (Denmark)
17. Ethnic Debate Forum (Denmark)
18. Euro-Mediterraan Centrum Migratie & Ontwikkeling – EMCEMO (The Netherlands)
19. European Forum of Muslim Women – EFOMW
20. European Muslim Youth and Student Organisations – FEMYSO
21. European Network of Religion and Belief – ENORB
22. European Network of Women of African Descent – ENWAD
23. Farid Hafez from Salzburg University (Austria)
24. European Roma Grassroots Organisations Network – ERGO
25. Fair Play (Denmark)
26. Friends of the Earth Europe
27. FTI Consulting (Belgium)
28. ICA Spain (Spain)
29. Inequalities Research Network, University of Leeds (UK)
30. Integratiepact vzw (Belgium)
31. Irish Network against Racism – INAR (Ireland)
32. Karamah EU
33. Minderhedenforum (Belgium)
34. Mouvement contre le racisme, l’antisémitisme et la xénophobie – MRAX (Belgium)
35. New Horizons Project
36. New Women Connectors (Belgium)
37. Open Society European Policy Institute – OSEPI
38. ORBIT vzw (Belgium)
39. Quartiers du monde (Belgium)
40. Roma Active Albania (Albania)
41. Stichting Ocan (The Netherlands)
42. Siempre (Belgium)
43. SOS Malta (Malta)
44. Waterford Integration services (Ireland)
45. Zivilcourage und Anti-Rassismus Arbeit – ZARA (Austria)

Download the open letter

Strengthening Roma civil society as independent and transparent watchdog organisations

Strengthening Roma civil society as independent and transparent watchdog organisations

ERGO members from the Western Balkans, Turkey and the ‘Visegrad countries’ Hungary, Slovakia and Czech Republic met in Brussels on 24-25 November to prepare a new ERGO project that will strengthen Roma civil society as independent and transparent watchdog organisations.

Being transparent and accountable are important prerequisites for the effectiveness of civil society organisations that are taken seriously by their institutional counterparts. It also shows public authorities that civil society take transparency and accountability very seriously and demand the same from the public sector.

With financial support from the International Visegrad Fund and the European Commission, ERGO Network member organizations therefore agreed on joining their efforts and put their thorough expertise together to set up a list of ‘transparency criteria’ and capacitate Roma civil society in their countries in implementing them.

During the meeting, all partners agreed that using transparency criteria would give them more legitimacy, better fundraising opportunities and more trust from both the grassroots level and institutions. They then drew up a list of criteria, divided into the chapters ‘governance’, ‘finance’ and ‘performance’. These include points such as giving access and distributing information about statutes and funding sources of CSOs, clear decision-making structures that divide responsibilities and ensure gender equality in CSOs, as well as the participation of target groups in the development of strategies and goals. The partners furthermore stressed the importance of open leadership and regular training within the organisation that contribute to a positive performance of the staff, as well as the need not to use ‘dirty money’ coming for example from illegal sources or from companies using child labour.

Transparency also demands a proper and clear communication strategy (both internal and external) that communicates the vision, mission and the long term goals of the organization. If applicable, diversification of funds also contributes to more independence of organisations.

In 2018, ERGO Network will organise a training for trainers on the transparency criteria in order to help their usage and dissemination in the participating countries as well as offer coaching visits to the partner organisations. You will be able to find regular updates on our website.