antigypsyism – Page 9

Post 2020 EU Framework must be top priority in Covid-19 response

Appeal to the European Commission and the European Council to make the post-2020 EU Strategic Framework for Roma Equality and Inclusion a top priority in its Covid-19 response

Download the pdf version.

April 22, 2020

Honorable President of the European Commission, Ms Ursula von der Leyen

Honorable President of the European Council, Mr Charles Michel

On behalf of the European coalition of Roma and pro-Roma organizations, we call on the European Commission and the European Council to prioritise fundamental rights and the protection of the most vulnerable when redefining the EU agenda in light of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. In particular, we urge EU leaders to address the following three priorities in order to ensure the equal treatment, safety, well-being and equality of Roma communities and thereby contribute to ameliorating the pandemic situation for all Europeans:

An immediate European humanitarian response should coordinate and allocate sufficient resources to all vulnerable groups, in particular marginalized Roma communities and all racialized minorities, making sure they are reached in all Member States and enlargement countries.
The European Covid-19 Recovery Plan should fully take into account the needs of vulnerable Roma communities, and define them as a priority group in all mainstream policies and measures, including in economic aid and recovery, social protection, health care, housing, education and employment.
A post-2020 “EU Strategic Framework for Roma Equality, Social and Economic Justice and Combating Antigypsyism” must constitute a top priority in the Covid-19 response of the EU, Member States and Enlargement countries in order to comprehensively address the structural exclusion, inequality and vulnerability of Roma communities, that was dramatically exposed by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Post-2020 European Roma Coalition signals its concerns about the negative consequences of a possible delay of human and minority rights initiatives, including the post-2020 EU Roma Strategic Framework, due to COVID-19. Such a delay will have a tremendously negative effect on the human rights and protection of vulnerable groups such as Roma. The Coalition calls on the European Commission and Council not to risk the safety, well-being and equality of 12 million Roma in the European Union and Enlargement Countries in a hasty decision to save resources.

Since the outbreak of Covid-19, under the social distancing and public health measures, many Roma working in the informal sector lost their sources of daily income (such as working in private fields, collecting and selling scrap metal, small traders, market sellers; those working in the arts and culture, as musicians, cultural producers, artisans etc.). Rampant antigypsyism, including hate speech by the media and racist violence against Roma is increasing rapidly in many Member States and Enlargement Countries, particularly in Austria, Bulgaria, Hungary, North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia and Slovakia. In addition, measures of confinement are being applied disproportionately by some authorities, who argue that Roma communities are responsible for spreading the virus more rapidly, (e.g., in Bulgaria and Romania mayors organised checkpoints to control the movement from and to Roma neighbourhoods, including by sealing checkpoints with concrete in Kazanluk, Bulgaria to make the neighbourhood accessible only through the checkpoints).

There is a real danger that, as we move globally deeper into an imminent economic and humanitarian crisis, the needs and concerns of minority groups will be overlooked by governments. European and international efforts to curb the spread of the coronavirus and mitigate its long-term economic and social consequences should start with addressing racial inequalities and achieve social justice for all.

Now more than ever, Europe needs a prompt, robust and binding post-2020 EU Roma Strategic Framework for Roma Equality, Inclusion and Combating Antigypsyism that prioritises minimum adequate standards, targets and indicators in the areas of education, employment, health, social protection, housing and fighting antigypsyism, and that includes equally Enlargement and Neighborhood Countries to guarantee a level playing field in the access to basic rights and services. A delay in the adoption of the EU Roma Strategy because of the Covid-19 pandemic is not justified, since social inequalities and racism against Roma to date are now impacting disproportionately on Roma who live in squalid conditions, without running water, without income and food supplies, and at a much higher risk of infection and spread of the coronavirus. Prioritising the EU Roma Strategy is not only a moral and human rights duty towards Roma, it is also the right way to contain and minimise the impact of the pandemic for millions more citizens and residents that need EU support to push their Member States and Enlargement Countries to take action. [Follow the CSO response on the Roadmap] Moreover, delaying the adoption of the EU Roma initiative creates a risk that the future European framework as well as the consequent national Roma inclusion strategies will not be adequately integrated into the designing and implementation of the new cohesion policy or the post-crisis recovery policy.

The post-2020 European Roma Coalition with the support of

Central Council of German Sinti and Roma

Center for Policy Studies, Central European University (CEU)

European Network Against Racism (ENAR)

European Roma and Travellers Forum (ERTF)

European Roma Grassroots Organisations (ERGO) Network

European Roma Information Office (ERIO)

European Roma Institute for Arts and Culture (ERIAC)

European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC)

Fundacion Secretariado Gitano (FSG)

International Roma Youth Network, TernYpe

Phiren Amenca International Network

Roma Active Albania (RAA)

Roma Entrepreneurship Development Initiative (REDI)

Joint letter to Helena Dalli

Coronavirus: NGOs warn against Roma exclusion from EU crisis response

ERGO Network together with 8 other (pro-)Roma civil society organisations have sent a letter to EU Commissioner for Equality Helena Dalli, calling on the Commission to do its utmost to ensure that in drawing down on crisis funds, Member States do not further discriminate against Roma and other racialized minorities.

Find the full letter here.

The Brussels Times reported about the letter here.

The letter was signed by the European Roma Rights Centre, ERGO Network, European Network against Racism, Roma Education Fund, European Roma Institute for Arts and Culture, Roma Active Albania, Roma Entrepreneurship Development Initiative, Central Council of German Sinti and Roma and Fundacion Secretariado Gitano.

Covid-19 – extreme hardship and solidarity in these times of crisis

Covid-19 – extreme hardship and solidarity in these times of crisis

The Covid-19 crisis affects everyone, and the virus does not differentiate between people; anyone could catch it, no matter how rich or poor. Most people suffer under lockdowns, most people are scared and many will need income support in the coming weeks. However, while many people are confined in their comfortable homes and can use their laptops to continue working or learning from home, marginalized communities such as the Roma are facing extreme hardship in this time of crisis.

Many Roma across Europe work in the informal sector, for example in street markets or digging in landfills. Now that they are not allowed to leave their homes, they are left without any income, have no savings and do not receive unemployment benefits, or any other form of social assistance. Today in Europe, hunger is a real. Thousands of people are left without food.

Many Roma live in poor housing in segregated communities, without running water in their homes or sufficient space to self-isolate. Roma are already statistically with poorer health, so more at risk in this crisis. And while other children continue their schooling through online classes, this is not possible for many Roma children simply due to a lack of internet access in their neighbourhoods, and of PCs in their homes.

And finally, adding to these devastating living conditions, comes widespread antigypsyism: Roma communities facing stricter restrictions than other neighbourhoods, Roma travelers being controlled more often and Roma even falsely blamed of carrying the virus. Governments are using the health threat to push forward racist policies, when they should do exactly the opposite and pay special attention to vulnerable groups.

ERGO Network together with its partners is asking governments to remain vigilant against racist acts and calls on the European Commission to ensure that the newly released EU Solidarity Fund to respond to the crisis fully takes into account the needs and rights of Roma and other marginalized communities. Member States must guarantee that poor and marginalized communities have access to clean drinking water, food, health care and housing, as well as to reliable information. If these communities are not supported now, the social crisis that will follow the health-crisis will haunt Europe for a long time to come. (Read here our joint letter to EU Commissioner Helena Dalli with the ERRC and several other (pro-)Roma civil society organisations).

At the same time, ERGO Network members on the grassroots level are putting extraordinary levels of energy into supporting the people on the ground and show a spirit of solidarity that others can learn from! Here are just some examples of their great initiatives:

Integro Association, Bulgaria

Immediately after the outbreak Integro established a coordination group of NGOs and relevant government representatives. Through this group they can convey needs and difficulties identified on local level and propose solutions, with a direct contact to the National Headquarter for combating the Corona-virus infection.

All health and education mediators of Integro are visiting Roma neighbourhoods to provide information, monitor quarantine and refer people to specialists. They also distribute schooling materials for children who cannot take part in online learning. At Integro’s suggestion, many mediators are also included in municipal coronavirus teams and receive protective equipment. As the equipment is not sufficient, Integro is looking for suitable fabrics so that the women at the organisation’s Roma Mother Centres can sew masks for mediators and activists. Integro also translated a brochure and video from the Roma Standing Conference on preventing the coronavirus infection from Bulgarian and Romanes into Turkish, the language of many Roma communities in Bulgaria. 15,000 brochures of the brochure have been printed!

In addition, the association proposed urgent measures to be taken by local authorities to support Roma communities, and many of them complied and provide for example food packages and water tanks. Integro also discusses with the Ministry of Education to provide internet access, and with IT companies to provide old computers to the communities so that children can participate in online learning programmes. Last but not least, they closely monitor whether rights of the Roma are violated.

Nevo Parudimos, Romania

Our members from Resita in Romania convinced the municipality to distribute weekly food packages to poor families and have already distributed 160 wash basins, antibacterial soap and disinfectants to families in the marginalized neighbourhoods of Mociur, Dealu Mare and Câlnic, where many Roma live.

Nevo Parudimos has also agreed with a textile factory to produce 1000 face masks for people in need. Nevo Parudimos will provide the material and the factory will produce the masks free of charge. The European Solidarity Corps volunteers hosted by Nevo Parudimos are spending their days sewing masks in self-isolation. Nevo Parudimos is keeping their spirits up by daily group calls and online activities.

Upre Roma, Italy

In Northern Italy, where the situation is worse than anywhere else in the world, our member Upre Roma is putting all efforts into activating political contacts and lobbying all administrative and political levels to provide basic necessities for poor communities. 40,000 poor people, many of them Roma, are left without food. No NGO would have the means or would even be allowed to support all these people, so political action is needed. Upre Roma has also started a petition to demand access to clean water for Roma camps. At the same time, the activists are constantly on the phone, informing people about how to access their rights, how to get support etc.

Butterfly Development, Hungary

Pro Cseherat is running a successful community gardening programme with Roma communities for many years already. In times of confinement and lack of financial resources, self-reliance through gardening can take a great burden from poor families. Pro Cseherat is therefore developing a distant learning programme through Facebook that explains how to start one’s own vegetable garden.

Slovo 21, Czech Republic

In this exceptional situation Slovo 21 is intensively communicating with members of the Roma Women’s group Manushe, which organizes Roma women through sharing Facebook posts and events. Together they coordinate the sewing of facemasks, which are distributed for free within their localities and to hospitals. Face masks are obligatory to wear in Czech Republic when leaving the house, for example to buy food or seek medical attention.

Besides these concrete examples, all member organisations focus in particular on providing information and lobbying their governments. They explain new rules concerning self-isolation, inform where to get financial assistance, give mental health support and provide essential hygiene tips. They are lobbying their governments to provide extra support to Roma communities, to stop evictions and to end discrimination of marginalized groups who suffer disproportionally under the crisis. None of us could do anything to mitigate the crisis on our own. Coordination is needed, and Roma NGOs need to be included in crisis response teams to ensure Roma are not left out of any support measures.

Do you want to share what you are doing? You can send information about your activities to info@ergonetwork.org and we will share it with other activists!

Do you observe rights violations against Roma in this crisis? Please provide information to the Fundamental Rights Agency, which is investigating the impact of Covid-19, by sending information to frp@fra.europa.eu.

Do young people in your organisation are organising solidarity actions? ERGO Network is partnering with FEMYSO for the campaign #OutbreakofGenerosity which offers a great guide for young people’s work during this crisis. http://outbreakofgenerosity.org/

ERGO Network feedback on Commission Roadmap

ERGO Network written feedback on the Roadmap published by DG Justice on 17 Feb 2020. An initiative setting out the EU post-2020 Roma equality and inclusion policy

ERGO strongly welcomes the Roadmap by the European Commission setting out the post-2020 EU Roma equality and inclusion policy, which builds on the previous EU Roma Framework for National Roma Integration Strategies (NRIS).

The major challenge of the previous EU Framework was its non-binding character, which gave the liberty to Member States to decide whether and how to design their NRIS. Therefore, in its written feedback, ERGO Network called for a comprehensive and binding EU Strategy for Roma inclusion and antigypsyism, which has concrete minimum standards and ambitious targets, including overall common indicators and measuring impact, as well as a joint monitoring process between Member States and the European Commission. The new Strategy should be fully integrated in the European Semester, and work in synergy with the successor of Europe 2020, the European Pillar of Social Rights, and the Sustainable Development Goals.

ERGO demanded for a post-2020 EU Roma Strategy and NRIS that put combating antigypsyism at their centre and ensure cross-cutting priorities within, such as antigypsyism, intersectional discrimination, poverty, material deprivation, housing evictions, discrimination, child protection, gender mainstreaming, LGBTQI+, environmental racism, diversity within Roma groups, Roma participation, Roma identity and cultural heritage.

Combating antigypsyism through the existing anti-discrimination legislation is not enough. The four key areas of NRIS should end any form of structural antigypsyism, including all forms of segregation, forced evictions, environmental injustice and other manifestations of prejudice, including in education, employment, health and housing and other relevant areas mentioned above. The next EU Roma Strategy must demand all Member States to formally recognise antigypsyism as a specific form of racism against Roma beyond the general ground already embedded in the EU and national legislation related to “race or ethnicity”.

ERGO Network calls for introducing EU and national measurable anti-discrimination indicators in the key areas of education, employment, housing and health, in addition to social inclusion programmes, including ambitious targets and concrete objectives, that must be monitored on an annual basis. Indicators should also be structural, showing legislative, policy and practical changes and their impact on institutions as a way to address structural and institutional racism and discrimination. In addition, indicators should meet the Sustainable Development Goals 2030, Social Pillar etc. The Strategy should also contain a clear methodology on how Member States can collect ethnic data on Roma, in line with Race Equality Directive and GDPR.

Finally, ERGO demanded that the Roadmap ensures Roma participation at all levels throughout the entire process, in line with Art 11 of the Treaty on European Union (TEU).

For more information, please contact Jamen Gabriela Hrabaňová, ERGO Network Director, at g.hrabanova@ergonetwork.org.

European Semester – ERGO response to the country reports

European Semester: European Commission releases Winter Package
What’s in it for Europe’s Roma?

On 26 February 2020, the European Commission published the so-called Winter Package, comprising the 28 Country Reports 2020 (including the United Kingdom), and the usual Communication on Country Reports, in the framework of the 2020 European Semester.

The European Roma Grassroots Organisations (ERGO) Network warmly welcomes the explicit mention of the European Roma in the Communication on the Country Reports, which states “Equal access to high-quality education and training from an early age is also essential to promote equality of opportunities and to foster inclusion, including of underrepresented groups such as Roma…”. However, we are disappointed that the Roma are mentioned exclusively under education and training. There are no references to the fact that Roma people in Europe face poverty and social exclusion at rates of over 80% in most Member States, that their employment, health, housing and other indicators are extremely low compared to the majority of the population, and that antigypsyism and discrimination continue to be rampant.

This approach is mirrored by the very vast majority of the individual Country Reports included in the Package, according to the review performed by the ERGO Network and its national members. Read below the Key Messages derived from this analysis and access the full report here:

Only 6 Country Reports explicitly refer to the Roma, despite most of them across Europe experiencing severe discrimination, marginalisation and segregation, poverty, poor living conditions, and very low employment, education, and health outcomes.

The National Roma Integration Strategies are not given enough prominence and support in the vast majority of Country Reports, evidencing a lack of effective integration of the EU Roma Framework in the European Semester and its processes.

The national approach to Roma rights and inclusion continues to be piecemeal in most countries, while a comprehensive, integrated policy response, rooted in realities across all social areas and equally tackling antigypsyism, is lacking.

The approach to Roma communities is consistent with an unfortunate lack of prioritizing of issues related to ethnic minorities and discrimination throughout the Country Reports.

Civil society organisations are only rarely mentioned as key partners in the design, implementation, and monitoring of public policies, thus weakening the effectiveness of interventions, as well as undermining ownership and democratic decision-making processes.

For more information about ERGO Network’s work on EU social inclusion and employment policy (European Semester, Europe 2020, European Pillar of Social Rights, Sustainable Development Goals etc), please contact Senior Policy Adviser Amana Ferro.