Roma poverty and social exclusion – Page 5

ERGO’s response to EC proposal for Joint Employment Report 2021

European Commission releases proposal for Joint Employment Report 2021 – What’s in it for Europe’s Roma?

On 18 November 2020, the European Commission published the draft Joint Employment Report, published this year separately from the Annual Sustainable Growth Strategy (ASGS), which was released in September (see ERGO Network’s reaction to it here).

This year’s disconnect between the ASGS and the draft Joint Employment Report means that the former was not underpinned by the latter, and that Europe’s priorities for a green, digital, sustainable and inclusive recovery were not guided by in the in-depth analysis of realities on the ground that the Report provides. The structure of the Joint Employment Report does not appear to have changed (as it was the case for the ASGS), as it continues to track Member State performance in the areas covered by the Employment Guidelines and by the Social Scoreboard of the European Pillar of Social Rights. The impact on the pandemic on the employment and social situation in Member States is equally included in detail throughout the Report, as well as the national measures aimed at mitigating it.

ERGO Network warmly welcomes the multiple explicit references to the European Roma in the draft Joint Employment Report, but laments that, once again, they are exclusively mentioned in relation to education (pages 61, 88, and 107). The Report highlights that “Roma inclusion in education is a challenge that could become more prominent as a result of the COVID-19 crisis”, that “Effective enforcement of legislative changes for Roma inclusion in mainstream education remains important”, and that “The NEET rate of Roma is much higher than that of the general population.” Travellers are also named once in the document, in the same section.

The focus on improving Roma access to quality and inclusive mainstream education is very welcome, particularly as it also refers to obstacles such as severe poverty and housing exclusion. ERGO Network shares the concerns related to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, which has seen a large number of Roma children deprived of the possibility to access online education, which only contributes to widening the gap with the general population. The digital divide is equally mentioned, in what concerns lack of access to infrastructure (internet coverage, electricity), equipment (PC, tablets etc) and knowledge (digital skills).

While the importance of affirmative action is recognized as a useful approach for ensuring equal opportunities, the Report takes a strong stance against segregation, calling for active measures to prevent it, as well as additional financial and professional support. Measures include educational mediators, scholarships, after school activities, language courses, free public transport, access to early childhood education and care, setting up antisegregation working groups, combatting the placing of Roma children in special needs classes or schools. These are very positive steps, already recorded in a number of countries, very much in line with ERGO Network’s own position and recommendations on quality, inclusive, and desegregated education.

Despite the very positive content on combatting school segregation and improving Roma educational attainment and completion, all the above measures are one sided and refer exclusively to educational establishments, while no mention is made of wrap-around support for families, access to adequate income, support towards quality jobs, decent housing, other services. This is despite the Report’s own admission that “In all Member States, the poverty risk for children raised by a single parent or in families with more than 3 children or with a migrant or Roma background is two to three times higher than that of other children.”

Tackling structural problems like persistent poverty or rampant discrimination, does not seem to be a concern, nor is proposing an integrated approach to the multiple difficulties faced by Roma citizens in Europe. The EU Strategic Framework for Roma Equality, Inclusion, and Participation is not mentioned anywhere in the text, nor is its predecessor. The Report completely overlooks the fact that the Roma are overrepresented in unemployment and poverty rates and face significant obstacles in accessing adequate social protection and key services, such as affordable housing, or quality health- and long-term care, including childcare. The Report also contains no reference to the situation of ethnic minorities or combatting antigypsyism and racism.

Encouragingly, the Joint Employment Report contains a full paragraph supporting the participation and direct engagement of beneficiaries and their civil society organisations in the design and implementation of policies that concern them (page 122), which is also stipulated in Guideline 7 of the Employment Guidelines.

ERGO Network hopes that the new decade will bring closer alignment between the EU Roma Strategic Framework and the European Semester, in full synergy with delivery on the of the Sustainable Development Goals and the European Pillar of Social Rights, to ensure that Europe’s Roma are not left behind, particularly in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic and recovery.

Social Economy and Roma Inclusion in times of Covid-19

Social Economy and Roma Inclusion in times of Covid-19

ERGO Network Annual Public Conference with Social Economy Europe and the European Parliament Intergroup on Social Economy

This past 17 November, ERGO Network organised its annual public event, together with Social Economy Europe and the European Parliament Intergroup on Social Economy. This year’s conference, which took place online, was dedicated to exploring the key potential of the social and solidarity economy to positively contribute to Roma equality, inclusion and participation, particularly in a pandemic and post-pandemic context.

Europe is facing an unprecedented social and economic crisis, brought about by the devastating effects of the coronavirus pandemic. Many Europeans have lost their incomes, their homes, their security, and even their loved ones, but Roma communities throughout the continent have been particularly hard hit. Because of its explicit objective to contribute to better social and economic inclusion and improved societal outcomes, particularly for vulnerable groups, social economy can play a key role in ensuring equal eights and wellbeing for Roma communities in the recovery process in different countries.

The online conference served as the formal launch of ERGO Network’s position paper “The role of Social Economy in supporting Roma social and economic inclusion in the Covid-19 pandemic and recovery”, rooted in an extensive data collection exercise across ERGO Network’s national membership. The Key Messages of the paper, presented at the conference, are:

Legislative framework prioritising social goals over financial gain and promoting sustainability
Meaningful partnerships supporting Roma participation and ownership
The Roma named explicitly as target group for social economy interventions
Fostering Roma social entrepreneurship through awareness and training
Access to stable, dedicated, transparent funding
An economy based on solidarity that works for all, including for Roma

The event equally aimed to showcase concrete good practices of Roma- and Traveller-led social enterprises on the ground, as well as to put forward positive ways to ensure that the potential of social economy to support Roma inclusion is placed at the heart of recovery packages and the upcoming Action Plan on Social Economy and Social Innovation, in full alignment with the recently released EU Roma Strategic Framework.

The event was very well attended with almost 100 participants, and it brought together ERGO Network and Social Economy Europe national members from the grassroots level in many European countries, as well as other national practitioners, European civil society organisations, EU policy-makers from the European Parliament and the European Commission, and other stakeholders.

If you attended this event, or watched the recording, don’t forget to let us know what you thought about it by filling in this Evaluation Form. Thank you!

See more:
– Agenda of the event

– Full recording of the Facebook livestream

– ERGO Network position paper

– Conference Report

– Photo album

For more information about this event, or about ERGO Network’s work on social economy, please don’t hesitate to contact us: a.ferro@ergonetwork.org

Meeting with Cabinet of Commissioner Nicolas Schmit

ERGO Network delegation meets Cabinet of European Commissioner for Jobs and Social Rights Nicolas Schmit

On 5 November 2020, the European Roma Grassroots Organisations (ERGO) Network facilitated an online exchange meeting between its national members and Ms Anouk Faber and Mr Christoph Nerlich, members of the cabinet of European Commissioner for Jobs and Social Rights Nicolas Schmit (DG EMPL).

The objectives of the meeting were:

How to create positive synergies between the new EU Roma Strategic Framework and the European Green Deal, Next Generation EU, and the Multi-Annual Financial Framework 2021-2027?
How to ensure that the upcoming Action Plan of the European Pillar of Social Rights delivers on Roma inclusion, equality, and participation?
How can ERGO Network support your work and feed Roma perspectives from the grassroots level, also in light of the adapted European Semester?

During the meeting, ERGO Network Director Jamen Gabriela Hrabanova and Senior Policy Adviser Amana Ferro presented our work on social policy across a number of files which fall under the competence of DG Employment, such as the European Semester, the European Pillar of Social Rights, the Sustainable Development Goals, the Youth Guarantee, Child Guarantee, the MFF, the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as social economy and minimum income. They stressed the need to better integrate the EU Roma Strategic Framework in mainstream initiatives like the European GreenDeal and the recovery packages, and reaffirmed ERGO Network’s readiness and commitment to support the European Commission, as well as national Governments, in its efforts to promote Roma equality, inclusion, and participation.

Our members Katalin Nagy (Butterfly Development, HU), Pedro Aguilera (Federation of Roma Associations in Catalonia, ES), and Adriatik Hasantari (Roma Active Albania, AL) spoke about how the upcoming Social Economy Action Plan and the reinforced Youth Guarantee can be very useful tools to contribute towards reducing the gap between Roma and majority populations, as well as about the importance of including the Western Balkans and Enlargement and Neighbourhood Countries in the learning and exchanges about Roma inclusion in Europe.

Cabinet members Ms Faber and Mr Nerlich confirmed Commissioner Nicolas Schmit’s commitment to Roma rights and inclusion and exchanged with ERGO Network members and staff about the best ways to engage with the above-mentioned policy frameworks in order to ensure a strong Roma dimension in Europe’s social and economic development strategies, as well as drew the attention to the key role of EU Funds (including InvestEU and ReactEu) to support these processes. However, they cautioned, a lot lies in adequate implementation, and civil society organisations have a key role to play in promoting the partnership principle in both funds and policy making, to ensure that the right priorities are being chosen and that the funds reach the most in need, including disadvantaged Roma communities.

ERGO Network hopes that this meeting marked the beginning of a fruitful cooperation with the Cabinet of Commissioner Schmit, and will continue to engage very closely with DG Employment on these issues.

Find the full meeting of the report here.

For more information, please contact Senior Policy Adviser Amana Ferro in the ERGO Network Brussels Secretariat.

Dream to Grow – how to make Europe’s labour markets a place for all?

“Dream to Grow: How to make Europe’s labour markets a place for all”

ERGO Network together with the Romani Early Years Network (REYN) – an initiative of the International Step by Step Association (ISSA) – hosted a virtual human library on 7 October, where Roma professionals told the stories of their pathways to become who they are today, showing the difference that enabling, inclusive and diverse educational and working environments can make for society.

The human library took place online, where the participating “readers”, composed of practitioners and policymakers, academics, students and activists, could listen to the diverse and compelling stories of Enzo (Italy), Davie (Scotland), Tünde (Hungary), Milan (Croatia), Maria (Serbia), Ani (Bulgaria), Fatime (Belgium) and Manda (Romania). Four of them are Early Childhood Development practitioners working with national members of REYN, while the other four work in a variety of fields. All of them experienced antigypsyism in education, from wider society and in employment, but against all odds now have fulfilling jobs where they make a change for the children and adults they are working for.

The participants had the chance to read two of the books, and the human library experience was touching and captivating, each story denoting particular characteristics but a common dream – to grow.

The event was opened by Stanislav Daniel, co-chair of ERGO Network and Aljosa Rudas, Program Officer and REYN International Coordinator at ISSA , who introduced the concept and aim of the event and of the corresponding campaigns of the two host organisations: A Place for All (ERGO Network) and Dream to Grow (REYN).

They highlighted the aim of the event: to raise awareness of the benefits of ensuring equality, inclusion and diversity in education and at work, and of the obstacles that Roma need to overcome to be able to find decent employment. Besides offering an inspiration for the readers, the human library was also a call to action to policy-makers and employers that more needs to be done to overthrow these obstacles and to ensure diversity and inclusion on Europe’s labour markets.

Brando Benifei, Member of the European Parliament in the Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats, welcomed the continuous work of ERGO Network and REYN to shed light on this important topic, and explained the role that the updated European Youth Guarantee should play to ensure that those young people furthest from the labour market, including Roma, receive support to find decent employment.

Margareta Matache, Director at the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights’ Roma Program and Harvard instructor, spoke about the history of racism against Roma and how the majority society needs to change its perception of Roma in order to ensure discrimination on the labour market and in general society will end.

After these introductory remarks, the most awaited part of the event took place, the online human library. In smaller libraries, the human books told their stories of how they reached the place they are at right now, who and what supported them along the way and which challenges they met. Librarians from ERGO Network and REYN facilitated the dialogue between books and readers in four smaller groups, ensuring human interaction.

In the debriefing, participants were asked to “review” the books they have read. They described their experience in the libraries as “inspiring”, “powerful”, “eye-opening” and “brave” and said that stories of courageous people like these will help Roma children to dream again. Some readers also expressed the importance that the stories are also read by other people, which you can do on the websites of ERGO Network and REYN.

Also Anu Ritz, representing the European Commission Directorate – General for Justice and Consumers, where she works in the Non-discrimination and Roma coordination unit for the EU Platform for Diversity Charters, thanked the human books for sharing their stories, as far too often the real stories of Roma practitioners themselves are not listened to. She presented the current efforts made at EU level to increase diversity and promote inclusion in employment, also linking the event to the EU Roma Strategic Framework for Equality, Inclusion and Equality that was published the day prior to the event.

Stanislav Daniel and Alyosa Rudas closed the event by sharing their final reflections. Stanislav pointed out that the eight human books who presented their stories all succeeded despite a discriminatory system. Going forward, we need to work for a world where people can succeed thanks to the system, not despite it.

Alyosa highlighted that the human dimension presented in the human library is often not reflected in national or EU policies and strategies, and not always needs and views of the community are captured in policy documents. This is why listening to personal stories and creating opportunities for dialogue are so important.

Listening to the life stories of the books and how they overcame prejudice and discrimination in education and employment, and how they are making a change in our societies through their work could be a first step towards a more inclusive future.

Look back at videos from the event here.

Reinforced Youth Guarantee – will Roma youth be included?

The Council of the EU adopts a recommendation for more inclusive measures to boost youth employment by reinforcing the Youth Guarantee – Will Roma youth be included?!

On 30^th of October, the Council of the European Union adopted by unanimity a Recommendation on ‘A Bridge to Jobs – Reinforcing the Youth Guarantee’. The new scheme affirms the upcoming commitment of the EU Members States to set national schemes in order to help young people receive an offer of employment, education, traineeship or apprenticeship within a period of four months of becoming unemployed or leaving formal education. This initiative comes at an urgent time across the EU, during the COVID 19 pandemic, which brought high youth unemployment rates and increased the number of young people not in employment, education, or training (NEETs). Even before the crises Roma youth which as it shown in the last data issued by Fundamental Rights Agency 63% of Roma aged 16-24 were not employed, in education or training (55% of young Roma men and 72% of young Roma women

This is not a new initiative, it follows the EU Council Recommendation of 22 April 2013 on establishing a Youth Guarantee, which numerous studies and ERGO research showed that failed to reach its full potential nor to include the most disadvantaged groups, such as Roma youth.

What is new?

The new Recommendation is considering the concerns of youth organizations and tackles some of the gaps in its implementation, identified as well by ERGO Network. The Recommendation extends the age limit for targeted young people from 25 to up to 29 years old. The new Recommendation also clearly state that the Members States should create supportive measures at national, regional, and local level by providing clear guidelines such as:

mapping – identifying target groups, available services, skills needs and young people at risk of becoming a NEET
outreach – targeted information campaigns among young people and reaching out to NEETs
preparation – better profiling to match needs and responses, counselling, and guidance, and improving digital and other important skills
offer – employment incentives, quality and equity, and post-placement support

Now is the moment to make sure that the Member States include the voice of the most deprived in the implementation of the Youth Guarantee, and that they take into account the situation of Roma youth. One of the main concerns when it comes to the Roma youth is the outreach offer and preparation in a time of pandemic, where many times the ones that need to be a priority are left out due to centuries of discrimination and low standards of education, which is the result of ongoing poverty cycles.

ERGO Network asks Member States to:

Invest in continued education (and training): enrolment in formal education or training programs leading to a recognized qualification, keeping in mind an individual approach.
Train employment officers and employers to fight antigypsyism: There is a need to train the employment offices as well as potential employers on historical and present antigypsyism, specially to counter the phenomenon during the recruitment process.
Improve cooperation between young Roma and labor offices: Governments should encourage a closer communication between labor offices and young Roma people and their civil society representatives, to increase the number of Roma youth engaged with activation programs
Hire Roma mediators as social workers/employees of the public employment services and local authorities with the main file and aim to assist Roma youngsters to access the initiatives under the Youth Guarantee, to ensure individual empowerment and ownership.
Take a holistic approach: Programs should be created to directly fight youth unemployment with an embraced holistic and multi-sectoral approach, in line with the Active Inclusion Recommendation. Efforts to support young people towards quality education and employment should be complemented by access to adequate income and services such as housing, transport etc
A more flexible and accessible registration process of public employment services, to ensure that no young person falls through the gaps and remains out of the social systems of their country – a situation young Roma often find themselves in
More partnerships with educational institutions and NGOs who can more easily reach out to Roma and other marginalized groups. This requires dedicated funding that will allow these partners to support the public employment services in the delivery of the Youth Guarantee, or to directly establish contacts with employers and support the skills development of young people.

It will now be up to the Member States to implement the Reinforced Youth Guarantee. We will continue the monitoring and advocating for young Roma people to have quality opportunities through this initiative, on equal footing with majority youth.

For additional information regarding our work on the Youth Guarantee and Youth Employment, please contact Policy Officer Carmen Tănasie in the ERGO Network staff (c.tanasie@ergonetwork.org).