European Roma Grassroots Organisations Network
ERGO Network
ERGO Network connects grassroots Roma organizations across Europe to promote equal opportunities, combat discrimination, and encourage Roma participation in policies affecting their communities.
Focus Areas
2024-2025
2020-2024
2015-2019
ID: 587174614073-09
Lobbying Activity
Response to Report on the progress made in the implementation of national Roma strategic frameworks
19 Dec 2025
ERGO Network welcomes the opportunity to contribute to the Commissions assessment of progress in implementing national Roma strategic frameworks. As a European Roma-led civil society network active across EU Member States and Enlargement countries, ERGO Network has monitored implementation from the perspective of Roma civil society and affected communities, combining comparative analysis, country-level evidence, and thematic research. Our findings show that while national Roma strategic frameworks are now formally in place across the EU and the Enlargement region, implementation remains uneven, fragmented, and weakly institutionalised. Progress is often driven by isolated projects rather than sustained structural reform. Persistent antigypsyism, limited accountability, under-resourced local authorities, and insufficient Roma participation continue to undermine impact in both contexts. Through our Civil Society Monitoring of National Roma Strategic Frameworks (20212025), covering all objectives of the EU Roma Strategic Framework and including Enlargement countries, ERGO Network identifies a consistent gap between commitments and outcomes. Consultation mechanisms have improved in some cases, yet Roma participation remains largely symbolic. Roma organisations are rarely involved in decision-making, monitoring, or evaluation on an equal footing, despite their key role in implementation and trust-buildingparticularly in Enlargement countries, where institutional capacity is often more limited. Antigypsyism remains the least effectively addressed objective across both EU and Enlargement countries. Although increasingly acknowledged in policy documents, civil society reports little measurable reduction in discrimination or hate incidents. Weak and inconsistent data collection on discrimination and hate crime, especially in Enlargement contexts, continues to limit evidence-based policymaking and accountability. ERGO Networks thematic work shows how structural discrimination affects access to education, housing, employment, healthcare, and services, with disproportionate impacts on Roma women, children, and people living in segregated areas. Education remains a key area where structural barriers persist across regions. ERGO Networks research highlights continued segregation, misplacement in special education, early school leaving, and limited access to lifelong learning in both EU and Enlargement countries. While desegregation measures exist, they are often poorly enforced, underfunded, or undermined by residential segregation and local resistance. The integration of Roma history, culture, and perspectives in curricula remains limited, weakening both inclusion and prevention of antigypsyism. Across policy areas, data governance remains a critical bottleneck. Comparative analysis reveals major disparities in the availability, quality, and use of equality data between and within EU and Enlargement countries. Where ethnically disaggregated data are absent or underused, progress cannot be reliably measured. Civil society consistently stresses the need for rights-based data collection, respecting voluntary self-identification, informed consent, and data protection standards. ERGO Networks work demonstrates that civil society plays a compensatory role in both EU and Enlargement contexts by monitoring implementation, delivering services, and sustaining Roma participation. However, reliance on civil society without stable funding, institutional recognition, and shared responsibility risks reinforcing short-term approaches. Looking ahead to the second half of the 20202030 framework, ERGO Network calls for stronger enforcement of anti-discrimination and desegregation obligations, institutionalised and funded Roma participation at all levels, improved accountability and data use, and a shift from project-based measures to long-term structural investment. The attached reports further support the Commissions assessment towards 2030.
Read full response25 Nov 2025
ERGO Network welcomes the ambition of the proposed AgoraEU Regulation but stresses that, in its current form, it will not sufficiently reach Roma communitiesthe EUs largest and most marginalised minority. Our contribution outlines five key gaps and solutions: the need for dedicated and earmarked funding for Roma equality; explicit recognition of antigypsyism as a structural form of racism; accessible small-grant mechanisms that allow grassroots Roma organisations to participate; mainstreaming Roma inclusion across all strands of the Programme (Culture, MEDIA+, CERV+); and strong monitoring, indicators, and Roma participation in governance. These improvements are essential to translate EU policy commitments into real impact on the ground. ERGO stands ready to work with the EU to ensure that AgoraEU becomes a programme that genuinely includes and empowers Roma communities.
Read full responseERGO Network urges Roma-specific goals in EU Anti-Poverty Strategy
21 Oct 2025
Message — The network requests embedding the 50% Roma poverty reduction target to address structural racism. They advocate for ringfenced funding and policies co-designed with Roma communities.12
Why — Ringfenced EU funding would provide the network's members with stable, long-term financial resources.3
Impact — Reluctant member states would lose the ability to obscure Roma exclusion in general statistics.4
Meeting with Francesco Zoia Bolzonello (Cabinet of Commissioner Hadja Lahbib)
21 Oct 2025 · Follow up meeting on Roma week 2026 preparations
ERGO Network urges rights-based focus for EU social planning
10 Sept 2025
Topic — This consultation addresses the next phase of the European Pillar of Social Rights implementation.
Message — The organization calls for a rights-based plan focused on wellbeing rather than industrial competitiveness. They request that specific Roma equality targets be integrated into all future social policy initiatives. Furthermore, Roma NGOs must be involved in the design and monitoring of these social measures.123
Why — This approach secures targeted funding and greater policy influence for Roma advocacy groups.4
ERGO Network urges EU to formalize Roma civil dialogue
5 Sept 2025
Message — The network requests legal recognition of civil dialogue and a permanent Civil Society Platform. They demand long-term core funding and simplified administrative procedures to support grassroots Roma organizations.12
Why — Transitioning to core funding would ensure the long-term survival of smaller grassroots organizations.3
Impact — Authorities that use bureaucratic barriers to silence Roma activists would face increased scrutiny.4
Meeting with Hadja Lahbib (Commissioner) and
4 Sept 2025 · Meeting ahead of the European Platform for Roma Inclusion of 02 October
Response to Quality Jobs Roadmap
24 Jul 2025
Only 43% of Europes Roma are in paid work, and most of those are trapped in precarious, low-paid, low-prestige, and low-skilled jobs. A Job Quality Roadmap has the potential to serve as a transformative tool for Roma inclusion and equality, but only if it moves beyond the current framing, which only prioritises competitiveness and labour market needs. The Roadmap must be about societal well-being and social justice, not just economic productivity. Shockingly, the text fails to recognise any role of quality employment in fighting poverty, an omission that undermines the ambition of the Social Pillar and the upcoming Anti-Poverty Strategy. We welcome the mention of Roma, but they must not be portrayed as a convenient labour reserve to fill business labour shortages. They deserve quality, dignified employment as a means to deliver on their human rights to lead fulfilling, poverty-free lives. They are not a second hand workers' supply, to be tapped in times of need for cheap. The upcoming Job Quality Roadmap must include: - Adequate wages, benchmarked against the at-risk-of-poverty threshold, reference budgets, and real purchasing power. Wage policies must eliminate ethnic and gender pay gaps and ensure wages are higher than social protection floors and upward mobility. - Secure contracts, with no place for precarious or zero-hour arrangements. Roma must not be segregated into Roma jobs or low-quality, unstable sectors. Contracts must ensure predictability. protection from arbitrary dismissal, and severance pay. - Comprehensive social security, ensuring all workers have access to health insurance, paid holidays, sick leave, unemployment benefits, and pensions. Rights must be portable across borders, protecting mobile and seasonal Roma workers. - Safe and supportive working conditions, including full implementation of health and safety provisions. Low-skilled jobs must not mean higher physical or mental risk. The work environment must be adapted to all workers needs. - Work-life balance, including through flexible working arrangements. These must not be limited to parents but be universal for all workers. A 4-day week without salary loss should be explored to improve well-being. - Support for trade union and collective bargaining rights. Roma workers are underrepresented in unions and overrepresented in informal work, and pro-active efforts are needed for their inclusion in social dialogue. - Strong anti-discrimination measures, both in recruitment and the workplace. Antigypsyism must be named and structurally addressed, including in pay, promotion, training, and task allocation. Complaints mechanisms must be safe and accessible, with clear follow-up and accountability. - Access to training for all workers, even for workers in so-called low-skilled jobs. Upskilling and reskilling must be open also to Roma workers, who are often excluded due to bias or lack of outreach. - Career progression and job satisfaction, as Roma workers are rarely promoted or encouraged to pursue development. A quality job must offer dignity, purpose, and better life chances. We welcome the reference to enabling services like childcare, healthcare, and long-term care, but we lament the absence of references to housing and income support. Integrated, person-centred Active Inclusion strategies are key. We also welcome the mention of the Union of Equality strategies and urge a committed anti-discrimination dimension to be embedded in the Roadmap, as well as disaggregated data collection, including Roma indicators. We support strong linkages to the Social Pillar Action Plan and the Anti-Poverty Strategy, affordable housing and energy initiatives,as well as the Social Economy Action Plan, a.o. We are concerned that only social partners are mentioned, while the role of civil society, who are key in reaching vulnerable workers, must be formalised. Roma civil society organisations stand ready as partners in the Roadmaps design, delivery, and monitoring.
Read full responseResponse to Mid-Term Review: Social Economy Action Plan
16 Jul 2025
We strongly caution against diluting SEAPs social dimension in light of the new priorities of competitiveness and defence. SEAP must remain rooted in solidarity, community ownership, and inclusive development. Rather than shifting towards profit or militarisation, it should be used to advance inclusive economic models that serve all, particularly the most marginalised. Social economy is not a charitable side-activity, but a fundamental and substantive part of a social and sustainable market economy that strengthens democracies, reduces poverty, and boosts cohesion. Its primary metric of success should be social impact, not profitability. Moreover, social economy cannot be reduced a mere tool to increase the labour force and to provide cheap workers for business needs. While access to relevant skills and quality jobs remains important, social economy should primarily be used to support broad socio-economic inclusion by securing access to affordable and community-based goods, services, and participation. The mid-term review provides a great opportunity to boost the momentum and visibility of SEAP, by fostering fruitful synergies in its implementation with the objectives of the Union of Equality and its strategies, chiefly the EU Roma Strategic Framework for Equality, Participation and new Anti-Racism Action Plan. Roma communities must be explicitly reaffirmed as beneficiaries of social economy, through: - Clear indicators to monitor Roma participation, ownership, and leadership in SEAP initiatives. - Mainstreaming of the fight against intersectional discrimination on all grounds, including antigypsyism, through prevention, monitoring, and reporting mechanisms across SEAP. - Disaggregated data on access and outcomes for racialised communities, particularly Roma, in all SEAP activities. The Roma are not just recipients, but also drivers of change. The potential of Roma-led social enterprises remains largely untapped due to systemic barriers related to access to information, skills, and funding. SEAP implementation must prioritise investment in: - Tailored training, mentoring, and peer learning programmes for Roma. - Community-based social enterprise hubs co-created with Roma organisations. - Financial and in-kind support schemes tailored to the specific barriers faced by minority-led social enterprises. Furthermore, non-Roma social enterprises should work in close collaboration with Roma organisations to ensure local relevance and effectiveness, and to learn how to effectively check their biases. Funding criteria must prioritise long-term social gain over short-term financial performance, and state and philanthropic investments in minority-led social enterprises should be seen as public good commitments. Significant challenges remain to ensuring that SEAP policy frameworks, project design, and implementation are be carried out in partnership with Roma communities and civil society. Roma voices must be at the table when developing national legal frameworks, allocating funding, or designing social economy strategies. Going forward, SEAP implementation must incorporate a bottom-up, community development lens, supporting grassroots mobilisation, mainstreaming the fight against discrimination, and strengthening democratic participation through cooperative, worker-owned, and solidarity-based models. Future actions must ensure SEAP contributes to an economy that works for people, placing social and societal goals at the core. The mid-term review is a critical opportunity to recommit to these goals, and to ensure that racialised communities, such as Europe's Roma, are not left behind again. ERGO Network and its national members stand ready to work with the Commission and with Member States to ensure the second half of SEAP implementation lives up to its transformative potential. More info: https://ergonetwork.org/publications/poverty-2/social-economy-publications/ Contact: Amana Ferro (a.ferro@ergonetwork.org).
Read full responseResponse to Anti-racism Strategy
7 Jul 2025
ERGO Network welcomes the opportunity to contribute to the future EU Anti-Racism Strategy. Drawing from our work with grassroots Roma communities and broader anti-racist struggles across Europe, we call for a binding, ambitious, and participatory Strategy that addresses the root causes of racism and delivers systemic change. The 20202025 EU Anti-Racism Action Plan (ARAP) marked a historic milestone by recognising structural racism and placing racial justice on the EU agenda. It introduced important tools such as the appointment of the Anti-Racism Coordinator, encouragement of National Action Plans Against Racism (NAPARs), and the launch of the Permanent Civil Society Forum. However, implementation fell short. ARAP lacked binding commitments, accountability mechanisms, and concrete outcomes. Progress on NAPARs has been fragmented, with many Member States failing to deliver robust plans. Structural forms of racism like antigypsyism, anti-Black racism, antisemitism, and Islamophobia were often addressed in silos or through politicised narratives, and racialised communities remained underrepresented in policymaking. Priorities for the 20262030 Strategy Make it binding - A Council Recommendation must mandate Member States to adopt and implement NAPARs with measurable goals, timelines, and independent monitoring. Enforcement mechanisms and funding conditionalities should be introduced where commitments are not met. Address structural racism and specific manifestations - The Strategy must clearly define and tackle structural racism in EU and national legislation. Forms like antigypsyism, anti-Black racism, Islamophobia, and antisemitism must be addressed in their specific contexts and through structural policy responses. Mainstream intersectionality - Racism does not exist in a vacuum. The Strategy must account for how race intersects with gender, class, disability, migration status, and other factors. Acknowledging and addressing the legacies of colonialism, slavery, the Holocaustincluding the Roma genocideand systemic injustices must be part of a broader agenda for racial justice and reparations. Ensure meaningful participation - Racialised communities must co-design, implement, and monitor policies affecting them. The Permanent Civil Society Forum should be transparent, inclusive, and adequately funded, and Member States must establish equivalent national platforms. Improve monitoring and data collection - The Strategy must establish a coherent EU framework for collecting disaggregated equality data, with community safeguards. Shadow reporting by civil society and regular peer reviews should be embedded. Increase representation - Racial diversity targets and anti-discrimination measures should be adopted across public institutions, including EU institutions. Roma and other racialised communities must be visibly present in leadership and decision-making roles. Secure sustainable funding - The Strategy must align EU funding with anti-racism objectives and support racialised-led organisations through long-term, core, and flexible funding mechanismsnot only project-based support. On Antisemitism, Islamophobia, and Civic Space - The next Strategy must protect civic space and ensure that anti-racism is not instrumentalised or applied unequally. Rising repression of pro-Palestinian voices and conflation of criticism of Israeli state policies with antisemitism undermine the right to freedom of expression and assembly. Racialised communities, particularly Muslim, Arab, and Palestinian people, must not be targeted or silenced under the guise of combating hate. An inclusive, principled approach to fighting all forms of racism is neededone that safeguards fundamental rights and reflects the plural realities of Europes Jewish, Muslim, Roma, and other communities. The next EU Anti-Racism Strategy must go beyond symbolic commitments. It must be enforceable, intersectional, and firmly rooted in racial justice.
Read full responseMeeting with Hristo Petrov (Member of the European Parliament, Shadow rapporteur) and ATD Quart Monde
17 Jun 2025 · EU Anti-Poverty Strategy
Response to European Affordable Housing Plan
3 Jun 2025
Europe's Roma still live in informal settlements & segregated neighbourhoods, in inadequate dwellings & disastrous living conditions, with severe environmental consequences. Unable to meet ever-rising housing costs or to prove legal ownership of their home, they endure forced evictions, homelessness, and antigypsyism from local authorities, landlords, and neighbours. The EU Roma Strategic Framework for Equality, Inclusion and Participation includes as one of its four sectoral objectives: Increase effective equal access to adequate desegregated housing and essential services, while the corresponding Council Recommendation features a comprehensive section calling on Member States to ensure equal treatment of Roma people in access to adequate desegregated housing & essential services. Ensuring access to housing & adequate services and providing support to the homeless are also extensively covered by the European Pillar of Social Rights (Social Pillar), the compass for Europes recovery, while it is also supported by Goals 6, 7, 11, 13 & 15 of the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations. Our key messages and recommendations: 1. Roma living conditions are significantly worse than those of the majority, while most Roma experience de facto homelessness. Urgent & significant investment is needed to improve the structural condition of the dwellings that most Roma inhabit, including their connection to utilities, in order to render them compliant with the United Nations definition of adequate housing. 2. Most Roma live in segregated communities and / or informal settlements, many exposed to environmental hazards. Countries need to develop comprehensive desegregation plans with clear targets & indicators, which should also tackle the legalisation of irregular housing situations & the environmental consequences stemming from the use of unsuitable locations. 3. High costs of housing & overcomplex administrative procedures further reduce Roma access to housing. Roma housing & energy poverty must be addressed through improving access to income & better regulation of the housing and utilities market; bureaucratic procedures should be simplified, including decoupling access to services from ID papers & a fixed address. 4. The Roma continue to face antigypsyism & forced evictions. Anti-bias training must be compulsory for all housing actors, including local authorities, coupled with strong anti-discrimination legislation & enforcement mechanisms; evictions should be a last resort & must entail due notice & the provision of decent alternative housing. 5. Social housing holds great potential for Roma housing, but is currently under-utilised. The social housing stock needs to be expanded & improved, while its allocation should follow a rights-based, housing-first approach, reducing conditionality & unaffordability and ensuring that vulnerable groups such as the Roma are prioritised. 6. Roma communities & their civil society organisations must be involved, in order to co-create sustainable ways forward. Policymakers & all housing actors must cooperate closely with Roma stakeholders & their civil society representatives to ensure evidence-based solutions, support disaggregated data collection, foster common understanding, and bridge cultural gaps. During 2023, ERGO Network conducted national case studies in six countries (Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, and Spain), looking at the realities of Roma housing & living conditions, as well as at the key barriers the Roma face when trying to access quality & affordable housing. Additional benchmarking evidence was provided by our members in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ireland, Kosovo, North Macedonia, and Türkiye. The main findings and recommendations: https://ergonetwork.org/2023/11/research-report-on-roma-access-to-quality-and-affordable-housing/. The report is attached in its entirety. More information: Amana Ferro - a.ferro@ergonetwork.org
Read full responseMeeting with Evin Incir (Member of the European Parliament)
24 Apr 2025 · Discussion on collaboration on Roma rights, anti-discrimination and anti-racism
Meeting with Evin Incir (Member of the European Parliament)
10 Apr 2025 · Panel discussion on intersectional discrimination and racism
Meeting with Nicolae Ștefănuță (Member of the European Parliament) and European Roma Institute for Arts and Culture
8 Apr 2025 · Hosting of the Roma Week event
Meeting with Roxana Mînzatu (Executive Vice-President) and
13 Dec 2024 · Roadmap towards an EU anti-poverty strategy
Meeting with Ana Catarina Mendes (Member of the European Parliament, Rapporteur) and Amnesty International Limited and
18 Nov 2024 · Exchange of views on the Rule of Law Report 2024
Meeting with Hristo Petrov (Member of the European Parliament)
14 Nov 2024 · Introductory Meeting & Roma Week discussion
Meeting with Evin Incir (Member of the European Parliament)
5 Nov 2024 · Roma rights and anti-discrimination
Meeting with Evin Incir (Member of the European Parliament)
2 Oct 2024 · Roma rights and anti-discrimination
Meeting with Nikos Papandreou (Member of the European Parliament) and European Cancer Organisation
2 Oct 2024 · Introductory meeting
Response to Assessing the implementation of the Member States' national Roma strategic frameworks
2 Feb 2024
This submission of evidence by the ERGO Network includes 4 different reports, including its 2023 report in the areas of housing and living conditions in EU countries, including Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, and Spain and Enlargement Countries, including Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ireland, Kosovo, North Macedonia, and Türkiye, available at: https://ergonetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Ergo-2023-access-housing-WEB-V4.pdf. The report underlines that the living conditions of Roma are significantly worse than those of the majority, while most Roma experience de facto homelessness; most Roma live in segregated communities and / or informal settlements; many exposed to environmental hazards; high costs of housing and overcomplex administrative procedures further reduce Roma access to housing; Roma continue to face antigypsyism and forced evictions, social housing holds great potential for Roma housing, but is currently under-utilised; Roma communities and their civil society organisations must be involved, in order to co-create sustainable ways forward. The submission also includes the ERGO 2022 report of national case studies in six countries (Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, and Spain), looking at the main determinants of Roma health as well as at the key barriers the Roma face when trying to access healthcare and long-term care services in these countries, available at: https://ergonetwork.org/2022/11/research-report-roma-access-to-healthcare-and-long-term-care/ and the 2021 ERGO report of national case studies in five countries (Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, and Slovakia), looking at existing minimum income schemes and assessing to what extent they are accessible to Roma applicants, and whether they are adequate for promoting Roma inclusion and dignity, available at: https://ergonetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/ERGO-Network-Roma-access-to-adequate-minimum-income-schemes-Synthesis-Report-Case-Studies-2021-FINAL-LAID-OUT.pdf In addition, the ERGO submission of evidence includes its joint report with EEB environmental justice in national Roma strategies in 26 EU Member States, available at: https://ergonetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/report-ERGOEEB-ok-2.pdf. Based on the assessment of the national Roma strategies, only five countries (CR, FR, HU, SL, ES) managed to introduce environmental aspects in their strategies. In the case of 18 Member States (BE, BG, CY, CZ, DK, FI, DE, GR, IA, IT, LV, LU, NL, PL, PT, RO, SK, SE), environmental considerations are indirectly addressed within the realms of housing and access to basic services. Only three countries (AU, ES, LT) have been identified as lacking environmental aspects included in national strategies, both through a specific mentioning or proxy. And not lastly, the submission includes a summary report developed by ERGO members in the Enlargement countries, which is attached to this submission and focuses on the implementation of the national Roma action plans in the Enlargement countries.
Read full responseMeeting with Věra Jourová (Vice-President) and
26 Sept 2023 · Roma inclusion, implementation of the Roma strategy
Response to Draft Commission Delegated Regulation on the provision of EU-wide multimodal travel information services
6 Dec 2022
- In December 2021, ERGO Network published its analysis of 12 National Recovery and Resilience Plans (AT, BE, BG, CZ, FR, DE, HU, IE, LT, RO, SK, ES), from a Roma perspective. - According to our findings, only 6 of these (BG, CZ, HU, RO, SK, ES) included explicit references to the Roma, despite the dire situation most of them were facing even before the pandemic, now much worsened. - In these six countries, our members deem most measures welcome, but insufficient to tackle root causes of exclusion. - None of the 12 reviewed NRRPs includes any references to antigypsyism, while more than half (7/12 AT, FR, HU, IE, LT, RO, SK) also do not mention discrimination or racism. - Those that do refer to discrimination only take into account gender equality, disability, sexual orientation, or migrant background but not ethnic or racial discrimination. - The EU and National Roma Frameworks are absent from most of the NRRPs reviewed (9/12 AT, BE, BG, CZ, FR, DE, IE, LT, ES). When they are mentioned (HU, RO, SK), these are general references or problem statements, rather than concrete measures to bring about change. - None of the 12 Plans reviewed appears to prioritise the social inclusion of vulnerable groups, which is highly disappointing, but not surprising in a context where there was no earmarked minimum amount for social spending in the European Commission Guidance on the NRRPs. - All of our 12 national respondents indicated that the engagement of civil society in the drafting of the NRRPs was of poor quality, citing as main criticisms lack of information, unclear process, tight deadlines, lack of resources, and non take-up of submitted input. - When consulted in November 2022, our members reported that the Roma organisations they represent were not contacted in order to be associated in any way to the implementation of the Roma-specific measures in their countries NRRPs. They are equally unaware of how to pro-actively get engaged. - In Romania, our members report that work has begun on the NRRP priorities of granting legal status to 200 informal Roma settlements (with the participation of the World Bank for the selection criteria), and of building 200 integrated health centres (where beneficiary communities have already been defined). - We hope that the European Commissions mid-term evaluation will include a strong call to Governments to closely and pro-actively involve civil society, and specifically Roma communities and their organisations, in the subsequent implementation of NRRP provisions that concern them. - We equally hope that the evaluation will highlight links to key thematic EU strategies, such as the EU Roma Strategic Framework, calling on Member States to ensure fruitful synergies between the NRRP implementation and the delivery on these strategies at national level. - The same is also valid for EU initiatives like the Social Pillar Action Plan and the Child Guarantee, which were adopted too late to be included in the countries original NRRPs, but which should definitely be included in their implementation. Further reading: - ERGO Network report on National Recovery and Resilience Plans (December 2021): https://ergonetwork.eu/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/ERGO-Network-Review-of-the-National-Recovery-and-Resilience-Plans-FINAL-December-2021.pdf - ERGO Network analysis of the Autumn Package 2022 (January 2022): https://ergonetwork.eu/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/ERGO-Network-Response-to-the-Annual-Sustainable-Growth-Survey-2022.pdf - ERGO Network report on the Spring Package Country Report and Country-Specific Recommendations (July 2022): https://ergonetwork.eu/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/ERGO-Network-Spring-Package-CRs-CSRs-Response-July-2022.pdf
Read full responseResponse to Strengthening social dialogue
20 Oct 2022
General remarks:
• We welcome the European Commission’s commitment to improving social dialogue and particularly to strengthening the role, coverage, and leverage of trade unions and collective bargaining.
• It is regrettable and inaccurate that the background document uses “companies” in an interchangeable way with “employers”, thus completely overlooking labour relations in the public and the third sector, where adequate social dialogue to protect workers’ rights is just as needed. The current choice of language displays an undue bias towards the private sector, which will hopefully not be reprised in the initiative itself.
State of play:
• The is a striking lack of data regarding the degree of representation of Roma workers in trade union structures. Neither the main trade union umbrella organisations we contacted (ETUC, EPSU, CESI, UNI Europa), nor Roma and (pro-)Roma organisations are aware of such statistics. However, the consensus was that there seemed to be low coverage of trade union membership among Roma workers.
• The lack of Roma workers in trade union structures leads to less visibility of the specific issues Roma workers have, such as the ethnic pay gap or discrimination in the workplace. This situation is even more serious when we take into account that evidence from all countries shows that the Roma are over-represented in exploitative forms of employment (including the informal economy), because of a lack of knowledge of their rights.
• The Roma overwhelmingly work in jobs that are low paid, on zero-hours contracts, often in factory-based environments or others that require hard physical work. The consequences for large numbers of the Roma community are inconsistent working hours and, therefore, unpredictable income.
• Insecure contracts lead to vulnerability and to abuse, as Roma in these working environments are often asked to work extra unpaid hours and are too scared to make complaints, even in cases of sexual harassment or unfair / unlawful dismissal. The Roma might be a desirable workforce at busy times, but in lulls they are also the first to be dropped off.
• The Roma working in the “grey” economy continue to be vulnerable – even invisible – workers, finding it very difficult to assert their employment rights.
The upcoming European initiative should:
• Recommend sound public investment in specific provisions to protect the most vulnerable workers, such as seasonal, migrant, and minority workers, and those in the informal economy who are not covered by standard employment contracts.
• Explicitly support the collection of disaggregated data in trade union membership, in order to have a clearer picture of how the different concerns of vulnerable workers, including but not limited to Roma workers, are taken up in collective bargaining.
• Encourage and support, including financially, anti-bias and anti-discrimination trainings for social partners, to build better awareness of the specific issues faced by minority workers and other vulnerable groups on the labour market, so that these issues can become a part of social dialogue.
• Support information campaigns for workers about their employment rights, including in the Romani language, and put in place specific outreach measures for Roma workers.
• Ensure that Labour Inspectorates and the European Labour Authority protect and promote a work environment where recourse and appeal are available to all without prejudice or discrimination.
Read full responseResponse to Interim evaluation of EU Youth Strategy 2019-2027
20 Oct 2022
• Access to all the vulnerable groups and marginalized ones such as Roma in the EU Youth programs is a key element for equal opportunities and economic input for all the social spheres in society.
• The Roma population is young, with about two-thirds of the population being under thirty. Almost two-thirds (63 %) of young Roma aged 16-24 are not in employment, education, or training.
• Young Roma continues facing difficulties in accessing training and apprenticeship programmes due to common aspects of Roma poverty and social exclusion, including substandard education and direct or indirect discrimination in the labour market, coupled with negative public perception and negative stereotypes which are the consequences of antigypsyism (anti-Roma racism). http://antigypsyism.eu/
• Roma youth do not benefit from equal footing from the same resource’s goods, rights, and services as any other EU citizen and this is mainly because of the antigypsyism they encounter.
• “95 % of the respondents have observed and encountered discriminatory words, behaviours, and gestures directed at Roma, while 68 % have encountered racism while attending schools/universities. Only 34 % of the Roma Youth have benefited from Erasmus Plus while merely 14% have been part of the European Volunteer Service/Solidarity Corps”. These and other striking numbers are part of the preliminary findings of the ‘Roma Youth: Challenges and Perspectives’ survey conducted by Phiren Amenca Network and partners https://phirenamenca.eu/roma-youth-challenges-and-perspectives-live-talk/
• Over 80% of Europe’s Roma live in poverty, only 43% are in work, 41% experience antigypsyism, a situation much worsened by the Covid-19 pandemic which hit Roma communities disproportionately.
• Access to all the EU programs is a key element for reducing Roma poverty and discrimination on all the mainstream policies and youth, we urge the European Commission to foster strong synergies between the horizontal objectives of the EU Roma Strategic Framework on Equality, Inclusion& the EU Youth strategy.
• In order to have an inclusive society it is a prerequisite to have enough financial support for effective actions. Ethnic minority groups face internalized racism and systemic discrimination. Groups of people with disabilities still have problems accessing education due to unfriendly infrastructure. LGBTQ+ groups face various legislative issues.
• A persistent issue is the recognition of youth. There should be specific objectives and measures to reinforce societal recognition with a specific focus on vulnerable groups and minorities such as the Roma.
• Connecting EU with Youth, the visibility of EU programs among countries with a big population of Roma youth is increasing, however, their accessibility its restricted by the lack of a degree of understanding of the importance of the EU connection. EU should collaborate with the major universities and public employment agencies to promote EU programs and possibilities for the young population.
• Quality Employment for All The transition from the educational environment is precarious due to the lack of practical information. Ensure that all the employment opportunities are evaluated periodically and that the mainstream laws meet the specific needs and realities of Roma youth. Collect data disaggregated and intersectional data adopt instruments and ensure funding that allows for such assessments and policy revisions
• Youth Organizations & European Programmes, allocate funding and other resources (experts, equipment, spaces) to establish or strengthen sustainable Roma youth organizations and diverse youth structures, groups, and organizations, inclusive of Roma youth
• Information & Constructive Dialogue enhance the access of Roma young people and minorities to information regarding rights and opportunities. Have dialogues and appoint Roma contact points in relevant institutions and Ministries of Youth, Culture or Employment
Read full responseResponse to Developing social economy framework conditions
28 Sept 2022
• We welcome the recognition of a holistic approach required for social economy, spanning social and employment policies, education, taxation, public procurement, competition, industry and SMEs, circular economy, and local development.
• Harnessing the potential of the social economy is deemed key to meeting a number of challenges, yet several elements are missing: combatting poverty, ensuring community-based services, providing goods and services in an affordable way, and contributing to active citizenship and stronger democracies.
• Social economy is a substantive, integral part of economic activity, not a charitable, short-term intervention. Sustainability is not the same as commercial viability, as it is connected instead to the well-being of beneficiaries and the positive social impact.
• It is encouraging that contributions received in the run-up to the Social Economy Action Plan will be used in the elaboration of the Council Recommendation, as significant input was left out of the Action Plan.
• We further support the explicit objective of adapting policy, legal, and regulatory social economy frameworks. However, social and societal objectives of social economy must be sufficiently emphasised when these frameworks are defined.
• While adapting institutional and administrative set-up to better support social economy actors is welcome, it is imperative that the Council Recommendation also calls for the close involvement of beneficiaries and their civil society organisations.
• A partnership approach needs to be embedded when legal, regulatory, and funding frameworks are built or revised, involving key stakeholders, including Roma communities and their representatives.
• The role and potential of these communities must be acknowledged and supported, through enshrining a broad bottom-up approach, based on real community needs and grassroot input, giving the Roma a voice in the process.
• It is essential that non-Roma-led social enterprises work alongside Roma people or Roma organisations, to make use of the full pool of skills and talents already present in the communities.
• Correcting a staggering oversight in the Action Plan, we hope to see the Roma (and other minority-led social enterprises and racialised beneficiaries) explicitly catered for in the Council Recommendation.
• If Roma inclusion is not spelled out as an objective, mainstream approaches will leave them behind. Clear indicators that monitor Roma participation in social economy, the level of ownership, number of Roma staff etc are needed.
• Social economy actors (including the central and local authorities supporting them) must be mindful of deeply rooted discrimination and antigypsyism and make conscious efforts to combat any such tendencies.
• Roma are drivers and beneficiaries of change, but more targeted support is needed to build the capacity of the Roma to become social entrepreneurs themselves.
• The existence and potential of social enterprises need to be better promoted in Roma communities, alongside specific training and capacity-building, social enterprise hubs, mentoring, peer learning, financial and in-kind support.
• The Council Recommendation must recognise that marginalised and racialised communities face additional barriers in accessing mainstream funding.
• Dedicated public funding schemes and private funding should support minority-led social enterprises regardless of their market performance, given their public utility.
• Other useful tools included soft loan conditions, state-provided guarantees for bank loans, free premises, free expert support, tax deductions, fiscal incentives.
• Social economy offers great potential to address Roma poverty, employment, health, education, accommodation, nutrition, and to keep alive Roma culture and crafts.
• We hope the Council Recommendation will create fruitful synergies with the EU Roma Strategic Framework and with the European Pillar of Social Rights in a comprehensive way.
Read full responseResponse to Guidance on distributional impact assessments
28 Apr 2022
- ERGO Network welcomes the recognition that income inequality has increased since 2008 & that including ex-ante distributional impact assessments (DIA) should be prioritised by Member States, with a view to mainstreaming the fight against poverty & inequality in other policy fields.
- However, we stress that combatting social & economic inequalities should not be viewed only as an underpinning dimension of the green & digital transitions, or as a bottleneck to economic growth, but as a key objective in itself, that other policy fields should not just incorporate, but actively contribute to.
- We further appreciate the ambition to look at the disposable income of different groups of the population, as not everybody is impacted in the same way. Most Roma in Europe experience both relative & absolute levels of poverty & social exclusion, with rates multiple times higher than those for non-Roma.
- According to the Fundamental Rights Agency, 80% of Roma are at risk of poverty. In Spain (98%), Greece (96%) & Croatia (93%) this means almost the entire Roma population. Every fourth Roma (27%) lives in households where someone went to bed hungry. 92% of Roma indicate that they face difficulties in making ends meet. 44% of Roma live in low work-intensity households.
- In a cash-based economy, the impact of cash transfers on the poverty rate is a key indicator, particularly as only 43% of Roma are in standard, paid employment – hence they are often not eligible for contributive benefits. In many Member States, social protection is set at inadequate levels which don’t allow for dignified lives.
- Tax justice is fundamental for the implementation of the needed reforms uncovered by conducting DIA. Getting serious about fighting poverty means stepping up public investment in social infrastructure, which should be financed through progressive taxation, staying true to a redistribution approach & mitigating social polarisation.
- Enacting an EU Framework Directive on Minimum Income, based on art 153, 1, h TFEU, would be an essential first step in tackling income inequality. Such a Directive which would include common definitions of adequacy, linked to the 60% of median income (poverty line), complemented by reference budgets to ensure purchasing power.
- DIA implemented by Member States should be mindful of deeply-rooted, widespread discrimination as a key cause of inequality in accessing rights, resources & services. 41% of Roma report having experienced antigypsyism, which is still the most accepted form of racism in Europe.
- The Commission communication must enshrine strong synergies with the EU Strategic Framework for Roma Equality, Participation & Inclusion, where reducing Roma poverty is an explicit cross-cutting priority.
- Rates of Roma poverty & social exclusion should be annually measured through Eurostat, using the combined AROPE indicator – at risk of poverty, material deprivation, & households with low work intensity, to be able to keep track of the multifaceted aspects of inequality in Roma communities.
- Additionally, Member States can consider piloting targeted social audits to identify poverty risks that stem from the intersectional vulnerabilities of Roma & integrate this dimension as a strong component of the DIA.
- It is crucial that the European Commission closely monitors the implementation of DIA by Member States, including in the framework of the Macroeconomic Imbalances Procedure & the European Semester / NRRPs, as well as that it provides further support & coordination to national efforts. Additionally, DIA should also be implemented for EU-level policies.
- ERGO Network & its national members stand ready to provide policy input & direct grassroot evidence to inform the shaping of the Commission communication, as well as the subsequent development & reinforcing of DIA at national level, with a view to ensure that Roma-specific concerns & the link with antigypsyism are taken on board in a comprehensive way
Read full responseMeeting with Helena Dalli (Commissioner) and Amnesty International Limited and
6 Apr 2022 · Cabinet Dalli invited Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) to discuss concerns equality and non-discrimination CSOs are raising regarding the situation of people fleeing from the Ukraine
Response to Recommendation on minimum income
31 Mar 2022
• Over 80% of Europe’s Roma live in poverty, only 43% are in work, 41% experience antigypsyism, a situation much worsened by the Covid-19 pandemic which hit Roma communities disproportionately.
• In a cash-based economy, providing adequate financial resources is a key pre-requisite for fighting poverty & social exclusion + for enabling individuals to access rights & opportunities in employment & society.
• Access to adequate income is also a key element of reducing Roma poverty, one of the 3 horizontal objectives of the EU Roma Strategic Framework on Equality, Inclusion & Participation. We urge the European Commission to foster strong synergies between the Framework & the Recommendation.
• We very much welcome the framing in the context of poverty reduction, recognising that MI schemes are the cornerstone of our European Social Model & a key pre-requisite in the fight against poverty + the link to the Social Pillar Action Plan.
• We equally welcome the strong focus on low adequacy, including indexation. The amounts and reference indexes need to be increased in close connection to purchasing power, inflation, reference budgets, & the national poverty line, so that they can provide dignified lives.
• A key aspect is the impossibility to combine MI with other income sources (social benefits, part-time work, income generating activities). This pushes people into the grey economy. Even a school cash prize can mean benefits curtailed.
• We further appreciate the drive to improve coverage & outreach + take-up, particularly with a view to support access for the most vulnerable & tackle complex procedures which act as deterrents.
• The methodology, associated bureaucracy & corresponding costs must be simplified & significantly reduced to allow for marginalised people such as many Roma to apply for + maintain their entitlements. Better access to information & support in Roma communities need to be resourced & implemented. Current means-testing & eligibility criteria are very restrictive, impairing access to rights.
• We equally support the provision of integrated services, included tailored ALMP. We caution that PES are ill-equipped to deal with Roma applicants. Urgent investment is needed for more staff + anti-bias training & skills to deal in a supportive way with claimants facing multiple & complex barriers. Hiring Roma mediators helps bridge intercultural gaps.
• The Recommendation should combat punitive conditionality & sanctions + uphold personalised support, supporting people through disadvantage rather than the presumption of guilt + harsh conditionality & sanctions in exchange for benefits. Adequate MI schemes must be rooted in a rights-based approach. Tapering of benefits as a work incentive can easily lead to forcing people to accept any job, which is at odds with a supportive approach.
• Fighting discrimination – antigypsyism + stigmatisation of benefit claimants as lazy – must be a core element of the Recommendation, as a significant deterrent to take-up. Blaming people as responsible for their own poverty & as abusers of the welfare state must end & be replaced by an approach of solidarity & mutual support. Widespread antigypsyism must be combated in all aspects of life.
• Frequent & structured engagement of people experiencing poverty & the CSOs representing them is key. The direct input of MI beneficiaries is crucial to have evidence-based policies that actually work. Vulnerable recipients such as Roma must be involved in the design, monitoring & implementation of the Recommendation, through outreach, field research directly in communities, clear & transparent cooperation protocols with civil society + adequate financial resources to support this work.
• A Recommendation can only go so far. More impetus should be given to Member States from the European level, for example through a Framework Directive for Adequate MI & a new European Year against Poverty.
Read full responseResponse to Proposal for a Council Recommendation on long-term care
29 Mar 2022
• We welcome the fundamental rights-based approach, including non-discrimination & social inclusion, the focus social investment & healthy ageing & prevention policies + the acknowledgement of poor wages & working conditions in the care sector.
• We encourage links with the EPSR, SDGs & strategies on Ageing, Gender Equality, Disability & the Child Guarantee, but we urge strong synergies also with the EU Roma Strategic Framework & the EU Anti-Racism Action Plan.
• We appreciate the explicit mention of Roma & minority ethnic children, but the initiative must also consider Roma adults: older Roma, Roma with disabilities & Roma carers.
• Their specific needs should be prioritised to significantly reduce the care gap between Roma & non-Roma. Statistical data should be disaggregated by ethnic background when measuring progress.
• The Roma have a 5 to 10-year shorter life expectancy compared to others. 22% have a longstanding illness / health problem. 28% feel limited by their state of health. 55% of Roma women aged 50+ are in bad health (FRA).
• Older Roma experience additional difficulties, due to a life spent in poverty, health inequalities & increased health risks & chronic diseases. Low employment rates & overrepresentation in low-paid work give access to no or poor pension entitlements.
• Additionally, older Roma women experience bad health, low employment records & vulnerability to gender-based violence + intersectional discrimination.
• Efforts must also be made to ensure that Roma living with a physical or mental disability or chronic illness can benefit on equal footing from available support schemes (income support, care services etc).
• An independent living approach to long-term care must be supported, promoting deinstitutionalisation while ensuring the burden of care does not fall on relatives.
• Over 80% of Europe’s Roma experience poverty. Private care is prohibitively expensive & various administrative obstacles are deterrents to obtaining insurance. Financial barriers to access must be removed.
• Commodification & privatisation of care should be resisted. Instead, support free & comprehensive state service provision through consistent public investment in care as a common good.
• Many Roma communities are not covered by care services, forcing residents to undertake expensive, lengthy journeys. Also, many Roma face language barriers & a lack of identity papers, legal address, bank account & literacy skills.
• There is an ethnic dimension of the sector as care work is deeply racialised. Many Roma women & women of colour are employed as carers in facilities or households. The initiative should tackle the gender + ethnic pay & pension gap, to ensure that Roma women carers are not doubly penalised.
• Antigypsyism deters many Roma from accessing care: 41% of Roma report being discriminated by services (FRA). The fight against racism & discrimination from an intersectional angle must be mainstreamed, combating antigypsyism, ageism & ableism.
• Care services staff should provide inclusive & respectful care + receive anti-bias & diversity training & awareness raising of specific Roma care needs. Employing more Roma staff also helps.
• The health Roma mediators’ scheme must be scaled up & the mediators formally recognised & paid adequately according to their work & added value.
• Investment is needed in community-based services, including social economy initiatives, to create local jobs & respond to community needs where they arise.
• The initiative must support tackling the digital divide, ensuring that vulnerable users such as the Roma have free or affordable access to equipment (PC, tablet), infrastructure (coverage, internet, electricity etc) & digital skills.
• The initiative should closely associate care givers & care receivers from varied backgrounds (including Roma) & the civil society organisations representing them, in a structured, resourced & transparent way, in policy design, implementation & monitoring.
Read full responseResponse to European Year of Youth (2022)
15 Dec 2021
• We welcome that the proposal clearly mentions the EU Roma Strategic in the Explanatory Memorandum, though not in the Decision itself. We regret that young Roma are otherwise not mentioned anywhere in the text, nor are ethnic minorities a key priority group. This is a missed opportunity, as 80% of Roma live below the poverty line, while two-thirds of them are under 30. Almost two-thirds (63%) of young Roma aged 16-24 are not in employment, education or training. Moreover, they face antigypsyism in employment, education, health, housing, and access to rights and adequate income.
• We further welcome references to the EU Anti-Racism Action Plan in the Memorandum, as well as other references to anti-racism and the fight against discrimination, including on ethnic or racial background. However, these references are very few (1-2), antigypsyism is not mentioned as such, and the approach is nor mainstreamed in the proposal.
• Sadly, the Decision only mentions that the Year will contribute to the first principle of the European Pillar of Social Rights, while the majority of principles are relevant for the hardships young people face today.
• We welcome several mentions of disadvantaged young people and those belonging to vulnerable groups. However, youth poverty is only mentioned once in the text, and curbing it is not one of the Year’s stated objectives. Social assistance, social protection and social security are not mentioned at all, and ensuring access and take-up of adequate benefits allowing for a life in dignity is not a priority. Access to quality, affordable housing is also not part of the text, while healthcare (including mental health) is only referred to very sporadically.
• We welcome the many reference to quality jobs and quality education. We fully support the European Youth Forum’s Quality Standards for the Youth Guarantee (https://tinyurl.com/YFJQSYG). With the rise of precarious jobs and in-work poverty, particularly among young people, providing any kind of jobs is not enough.
• We strongly believe that the introduction of the ALMA programme without the obligation for employers to provide adequate wages will only lead to social dumping and exploitation of youth work, while the scheme would not be accessible to young people with limited means, such as many young Roma.
• Efforts should be made to ensure young Roma can have access to formal education or training programs which lead to a recognized qualification. Achieving at least basic skills and digital skills should be a priority. Public Employment Offices and social services must receive specific anti-bias training to fight antigypsyism and counter discrimination, which can also be achieved through hiring more Roma staff and Roma mediators, who speak the language and understand specific needs.
• Beneficiaries must be at the core of all interventions, to ensure ownership and a tailored, person-centered approach. Funding must be allocated to support outreach to young Roma, as well as for data mapping of remote and rural communities.
• We welcome frequent references to ensuring that young people from diverse backgrounds contribute to the Conference on the Future of Europe, but lament the lack of concrete proposals for how to include young Roma and other racialist youth in its proceedings.
• Disappointingly, the overriding focus continues to be on the green and digital transition, which is a very narrow approach when it comes to the complex difficulties faced by young people experiencing poverty and discrimination as part of their daily lives.
• See our Recommendations on what works for young Roma (https://tinyurl.com/ERGOWWYR), a collection of best practices (https://tinyurl.com/ERGOYRBP), our comprehensive report on Roma youth (https://tinyurl.com/ERGOYRRR) and our campaign A Place For All, encouraging diverse workforce and more hiring of young Roma staff (https://ergonetwork.org/campaigns/employment/).
Read full responseMeeting with Frans Timmermans (Executive Vice-President) and European Environmental Bureau and
10 Dec 2021 · European Green Deal and racial justice issues in climate, energy, transport and environment policies
Response to Online and distance learning in primary and secondary education
23 Apr 2021
Roma children & students do not enjoy the same learning opportunities as their majority peers. Poverty & antigypsyism act as powerful barriers in accessing online education. As such, they have lower attendance & completion rates, which lead to poor labour market integration & social participation. Four countries (BG, HU, RO, SK) received a Country-Specific Recommendation in 2019 to improve Roma access to quality education & to better integrate them in mainstream education. It is crucial to monitor its implementation in the European Semester cycle & National Recovery and Resilience Plans. Roma children are also a key target group of the European Child Guarantee.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, many Roma students were unable to access online education, due to absent infrastructure & equipment (the digital divide). Most Roma children & their families have no access to the internet, no computers & other electronic devices, and in some cases even electricity is not available. This means most Roma children cannot attend online classes, with long-term effects on their school performance. Proper housing, language assistance, internet access, having a laptop & access to electricity/internet are the minimum conditions for all children to continue their education online.
Unfortunately, there is a lack of data disaggregated by ethnic origin. While the EU Anti-Racism Action Plan includes this provision, upheld by the European Pillar of Social Rights Action Plan, Member States are only encouraged to do it. There is no comprehensive statistical information on Roma digital education, which would go a long way in identifying pockets of deprivation & groups left behind, in order to better target interventions & outreach. Unless the Roma (& other groups facing complex obstacles & multiple disadvantages) are targeted explicitly, they will be left behind by mainstream measures.
Digital citizenship principles must help Roma & other disadvantaged students to quickly mitigate knowledge & skill gaps of utilizing the online sphere, as well as to define the appropriate & responsible use of technology among other users. Most issues relating to quality and inclusiveness or education do not disappear if schooling is moved online. If anything, in addition to the digital divide, online education has the potential to exacerbate it, in a less controlled online environment where cyberbullying & hate speech flourish unchecked.
KEY MESSAGES
1. Curb the digital divide in poor, segregated Roma communities: improve access to infrastructure (internet coverage & subscription, electricity), equipment (PCs, tablets, smartphones) & knowledge (digital skills). Provide basic literacy & numeracy skills where required. Develop & use easy language & intense visual aids to support under-educated families & enable better transitions to the online sphere.
2. Render digital education more inclusive: fight discrimination & particularly antigypsyism in all its forms, including institutionalised (public & private institutions) + public discourse (the media, bullying & cyberbullying in education). Provide information in minority languages & majority language classes. Promote higher awareness of national equality bodies on the prevalence & impact of antigypsyist hate speech online. Support positive narratives online to counter antigypsyist hate speech.
3. Remove all financial & non-financial barriers to online education + support Roma pupils & parents, combining adequate income support schemes (including housing and utilities subsidies) & provision of accessible, affordable, quality public services.
4. Support better data collection on hate crime & hate speech disaggregated by ethnicity and gender, to capture specific needs & inform targeted action.
5. Put in place bottom-up participatory strategies, consultation protocols, adequate funding & capacity building to bring together Roma & non-Roma pupils + parents, civil society organisations, school staff, local authorities.
Read full responseResponse to Extension of the list of EU crimes to hate speech and hate crime
16 Apr 2021
The European Roma Grassroot Organisation Network (ERGO Network) welcomes the initiative of the European Commission to include hate speech and hate crime on the grounds of sex, sexual orientation, age and disability in the list of EU crimes in Article 83(1) TFEU.
Despite lack of systematic monitoring and collection of data on hate speech and hate crime on the grounds of sex, sexual orientation, age and disability, existing reports, suggest that LGBTI people and persons with disabilities suffer disproportionately from hate crime, hate speech and violence.
However, currently, the EU law does not require its Member States to recognise sexual orientation, gender identity and/or gender expression as a bias motivating factor in criminal law. The EU only recognises racism and xenophobia in its 2008 Framework decision on combating racism and xenophobia by means of criminal law. However, under EU law, age, disability, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation and social or economic status are protected characteristics. Article 21 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union prohibits discrimination based on an open-ended list of grounds, including, disability, sexual orientation and social origin. In addition, the EU’s Directive on the rights of victims recognises that the nature of bias crimes and the victim’s personal characteristics, including sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression, must be considered together with the type or nature and the circumstances of the crime to determine whether it is a hate crime, a bias crime or a crime committed with a discriminatory motive.
Due to these legislative gaps, an attack against a transexual woman who is targeted with homophobic slurs and subsequently beaten up on the street will be recorded, investigated, and prosecuted as a common crime. A similar attack suffered by a black woman and associated with racist slurs can be recorded, investigated and prosecuted as a hate crime.
The adoption of EU laws addressing hate crimes motivated on these and other grounds would bridge the protection gap at the national level, by obliging all Member States to investigate and prosecute incitement to violence or hatred on grounds such disability, gender identity or sexual orientation as criminal offences. It should also further enable law enforcement and judicial authorities to also record, investigate and prosecute hate speech and hate crime from multiple or intersecting grounds, especially in the case of Roma and LGBTI persons, who are routinely subject to hate speech and hate crimes. Existing data shows that hate crime laws and practices view and address protected categories as single and separated entities. For examples, police officers tend to choose only category of hate speech or hate crime, often based on their lack understanding of how to investigate the intersectionality of hate crimes or using the victim’s perception of the crime or their own perception of the victim’s (affected) identity- especially if the victim is a trans woman.
ERGO Network calls on the EU to extend the list of EU crimes to cover hate speech and hate crime to cover the grounds of disability, age, gender and sexual orientation and involve LGBTI persons, elderly and persons with disability in the design, development, implementation and monitoring of initiatives related to combatting hate speech and hate crime as well as improve ways, tools and mechanisms for monitoring, reporting and collecting data disaggregated by bias motivation, included by sex, sexual orientation, age and disability. Further guidelines should be developed for Member States on how to employ an intersectional approach in legislation and state responses to hate speech and hate crime.
Read full responseResponse to Social Economy Action Plan
16 Apr 2021
• We welcome the strong recognition given in the Roadmap to the key role of social economy in putting people first & producing a positive impact on local communities, in tackling growing inequalities & the social impact of the pandemic, and in building inclusive growth. The Roadmap highlights the potential of the sector to positively contribute to job creation & service provision, including social services, through innovative bottom-up initiatives to reach the most vulnerable & those furthest from the labour market, and to promote participatory, democratic governance models in the workplace.
• We further salute the commitment to provide the necessary legal framework & enabling eco-systems for social economy to reach its objectives, including through enhancing its visibility & recognition, improving access to tailored private & public funding + business support, fostering social entrepreneurship (in particular for young people), and other measures, as well as the focus on strengthening social economy in non-EU countries, in particular enlargement & neighbourhood countries.
• We make a strong argument that vulnerable groups such as the Roma must be explicitly included in the Roadmap as key target beneficiaries of social economy interventions. Experience shows that, if Roma inclusion is not spelled out as an objective, mainstream approaches leave them behind. We need clear indicators to monitor Roma participation in social economy initiatives, the level of ownership, number of Roma staff etc.
• Non-minority social economy actors must be mindful of deeply-rooted discrimination & antigypsyism, and make conscious efforts to combat any such tendencies. It is essential that non-Roma-led social enterprises work alongside Roma people & Roma organisations, to make full use of the pool of skills & talents already present in the communities.
• Furthermore, the Roma must be equally recognised in the Roadmap as drivers of change, by becoming social entrepreneurs themselves. The existence & potential of social enterprises need to be better promoted in Roma communities. Roma social entrepreneurs need specific training & capacity-building, social enterprise hubs, mentoring, peer learning, financial & in-kind support.
• The Roadmap needs to acknowledge that marginalised communities face huge barriers in accessing funding from mainstream financial providers. Specific public funding schemes & community-based and philanthropic funding should support minority-led social enterprises regardless of their market performance, given their public utility. Other useful support tools include non-repayable grants; favourable, soft loan conditions; state-provided guarantees for bank loans; provision of free premises; provision of free expert support; tax deductions; fiscal incentives.
• The partnership principle needs to be embedded, involving key stakeholders, including Roma communities & their civil society representatives. Social economy initiatives must enshrine a bottom-up approach, based on real community needs and grassroot input, giving the Roma a strong voice in the process.
• The Action Plan needs to be rooted in fruitful synergies with other EU policy & funding frameworks, such as the European Semester, the European Green Deal, the European Pillar of Social Rights, but also key thematic strategies, such as the EU Roma Strategic Framework. Social economy must be placed at the heart of Covid-19 intervention & recovery packages & funds, with an explicit targeting of vulnerable groups such as the Roma, who were hit hardest by the pandemic.
• Social economy is a substantive, sustainable, integral part of the economy, not a charitable, short-term intervention. Sustainability is not the same as commercial viability, but concerns the wellbeing of beneficiaries & the positive social impact. Social economy is, thus, a great opportunity to address poverty, employment, health, education, housing, nutrition, and to keep alive Roma culture & crafts
Read full responseResponse to Initiative on adequate minimum wages
15 Dec 2020
ERGO Network welcomes the Directive on adequate minimum wages in the EU as a much-needed & long-awaited step to guarantee quality of work & employment + to ensure that jobs are an actual route out of poverty.
Lack of support & early intervention means that many Roma, coming from a background of poverty & low skills, are only able to access precarious, low-paid jobs. This initiative is crucial to ensure the wellbeing of Roma workers. Even if employed, they are likely to experience antigypsyism & be treated unfairly in the workplace, such as being paid less (the ethnic pay gap). The Roma overwhelmingly work in jobs that are low paid, on zero-hours contracts, often in factory-based environments / other placements that require hard physical work. They are a desirable workforce at busy times, often asked to work extra unpaid hours, while in lulls they are also the first to be dropped off.
The new EU Strategic Framework for Roma Equality, Inclusion & Participation features a sectoral objective to reduce the Roma employment gap. However, unless we ensure quality jobs with adequate wages, simply increasing the number of Roma in employment will only result in heightened rates of in-work poverty, thus undermining the horizontal objective of the same Strategic Framework to reduce Roma poverty.
Roma representation in trade union structures is not recorded, however there seems to be low coverage of trade union membership among Roma workers, which in turn leads to less visibility of their specific issues, such as the ethnic pay gap or discrimination in the workplace. The Roma are overrepresented in exploitative forms of employment (including the informal economy), not least because of a lack of knowledge of their rights. The consequences are inconsistent working hours, unpredictable income, insecure contracts & vulnerability to abuse.
Despite these realities, the Roma are not mentioned anywhere in the Directive or its accompanying text, nor are any other ethnic minorities + nothing is said about combatting racism, discrimination & antigypsyism in the workplace, which often manifests itself as substandard pay for equal work.
Concrete demands:
- Recital (8): add the Roma to the list of categories of workers who have a higher probability of being minimum wage / low age earners & explicitly mention the ethnic pay gap (in this recital & throughout the text).
- Chapter 2, Article 5, 2: adequacy should be more explicitly defined & include a concrete benchmark, such as 60% of median wages, or at the very least the national poverty line; while purchasing power is mentioned, the reference budgets methodology should be spelled out.
- Chapter 2, Article 8, 3: the information that is made available to workers on statutory minimum wages should also be provided in minority languages, such as Romani or other languages of the workers; provisions need to be put in place also for workers who can’t read or write.
- Chapter 3, Article 10, 2: monitoring & data collection + statistics & other information, including on in-work poverty rates, should also be disaggregated by ethnic origin. Additionally, include the collection of disaggregated data in trade union membership, in order to have a clearer picture of how the different concerns of vulnerable workers, including but not limited to Roma workers, are taken up in collective bargaining.
- Throughout: Include ethnic & gender-neutral job evaluations, as a key means to combat the ethnic & gender pay gap and discrimination in remuneration and wage bargaining.
- Throughout: Mainstream the obligation to tackle work-based discrimination & antigypsyism faced by Roma & workers belonging to an ethnic minority / migrant community, as a key prerequisite to fight wage inequalities. This should include anti-bias & anti-discrimination trainings for social partners & state authorities, to build better awareness of the specific issues faced by minority workers such as the Roma.
Read full responseResponse to European Child Guarantee
7 Oct 2020
• While the Roadmap identifies several groups of “children in need”, Roma children are not one of them. The Fundamental Rights Agency found that every third Roma child (30%) lives in households where someone went to bed hungry at least once in the previous month, and only about half (53%) of young Roma children are enrolled in early childhood education & care. Unless explicitly mentioned as target group, Roma children will once again be left behind.
• The Roadmap has an almost exclusive focus on services, where nothing is said about access to income. Wrap-around support for parents must be part of the solution, including income support & pathway approaches towards sustainable, quality jobs. Over 80% of Europe’s Roma are at risk of poverty & social exclusion according to FRA, which has a considerable impact on their children’s development.
• Poverty, segregation, & discrimination prevent Roma children from accessing education on equal footing with their non-Roma peers. Many poor Roma families can’t cope with the associated costs. Lack of majority languages skills, limited access to early childhood education & care, and a state of poverty which does not allow for proper studying at home mean that Roma children end up segregated & bullied by colleagues, their parents, & staff. During the Covid-19 pandemic, many Roma children are unable to access online education, due to absent infrastructure & equipment (the digital divide).
• Adequate housing is an urgent priority, as one in three Roma (32%) live in households with a leaking roof, damp walls, or rot, one in five Roma (20%) live in dwellings that are too dark, & 78% of Roma live in overcrowded households. Disastrous living conditions have a tremendously damaging impact on the health & well-being of Roma children. The life expectancy of Roma across Europe is 10-15 years lower than of the majority population. The public health infrastructure often doesn’t cover Roma communities, with the nearest medical facility located far away. Additional complicating factors include the lack of identity papers, of a legal address, of access to a bank account, of information about available services, as well as language barriers. Investing in children must mean guaranteeing good health & well-being for all, particularly those suffering the most disadvantages such as Roma children.
• It is fundamental to tackle antigypsyism & intersectional discrimination, as 41% of Roma are discriminated against in everyday situations, and this is the environment that Roma children grow up in. This should be a horizontal priority in the fields of education, employment, health, housing, poverty reduction. Preventive & proactive measures are needed to alter misconceptions, misrepresentation & misinformation, and to develop positive counter-narratives. The C.G. should strive to ensure the teaching of Romani language & history in schools, including about the Holocaust & slavery of Roma across Member States, as well pedagogical support, such as trained Roma education mediators.
• The Covid-19 situation highlights the urgent need to invest in proper care services & income support. Appropriate links must be made with the objectives of the EU Strategic Framework for Roma Equality & Inclusion, and interplay ensured between the implementation of the C.G. multi-annual national strategies & the National Roma Integration Strategies. EU funds (Cohesion Policy, Recovery & Resilience) have a key role to play.
• The C.G. must achieve wide ownership by beneficiaries & be rooted in direct evidence from the ground. Delivery & monitoring must be underpinned by a meaningful partnership of all stakeholders, including CSOs. Tailored outreach measures are needed for the participation of Roma children & their parents, to ensure that the voice of marginalised & racialised children is heard & taken into account. Financial resources need to be made available to support Roma NGOs & build awareness, participation, and active citizenship.
Read full responseResponse to Digital Education Action Plan
14 Jul 2020
The Digital Education Action Plan as such must take into consideration to address and work on reducing the digital divide created by the presented pandemic and the ways it has been affecting marginalized and vulnerable groups in society, especially Roma. During the pandemic it became visible that not all Roma have equal opportunities to access, tools and knowledge to participate in a long-term digital transformation, especially Roma children in following on-line education and staying connected with their peers and teachers.
Digital divide affects people living in poverty on a very high level. As our lives become more and more dependent on efficiently using ICT tools, the lack of access for people living in poverty to quality training and education on the ICT field is concerning. While there are plenty of training available for those with existing basic skills in ICT, training portfolio is weak when we talk about digital literacy for those with non-existing knowledge on the field of ICT.
As evidenced by research and policy papers, Roma people in general are at risk of marginalization, discrimination and poverty, thus a new updated plan must address Improving basic ICT competences of Roma, developing and utilizing easy language and intense visual aid to reflect the needs of families often under-educated due to their social status and affected by antigypsyism. A new updated plan must cover the general needs connected with development of innovative teaching tools which to respond to the specificity of the people who need to be trained/educated using those materials.
Supporting development of innovative tools based on principles of digital citizenship, will help Roma and other disadvantaged groups to quickly mitigate knowledge and skill gaps of utilizing the online sphere as well as define the appropriate and responsible use of technology among the users. Roma as digital citizens can promote and poses the following values: respect, educate, and protect.
Awareness-raising and understanding of principles of digital citizenship will ease and support the long-term digital transition, thus by promoting values of digital citizenship as well as embracing the themes of Digital citizenship is important for the Roma community, because it is about access, communication, literacy, etiquette, rights and responsibilities.
Nevertheless, it is important to understand that Roma are being victims of hate speech and antigypsyism before and after joining digital and online places, therefore anti-discrimination policies that take into account the online sphere as well as antigypsyism as a bias motivation need to be taking into account in a long-term digital transition. It is important to raise awareness of stakeholders of antigypsyist hate speech in the online, since if not addressed the presented divide will become larger and simple push Roma further into the margins of society.
If, priority 1 is focusing making better use of digital technology for teaching and learning, the presented digital divide between Roma and major society needs to be addressed and worked on immediately, so no one is left behind. The same goes in addressing priority 2, so development of digital competences and skills is taking place among Roma and other vulnerable communities.
Lessons from experiences during COVID-19 crisis must be drawn when updating the new Digital Education Action Plan, so marginalized and vulnerable groups, as well as minorities groups are not left behind and are able to benefit fully from the proposed measures.
Read full responseResponse to EU post-2020 Roma policy
16 Mar 2020
Character limit is too small for te full roadmap!!!
A.CONTEXT
CSOs are still asking for a comprehensive, binding, EU Strategy for Roma inclusion and antigypsyism, with concrete minimum standards and ambitious targets, implemented through the European Semester
•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. Any future EU Framework should contain minimum standards for all member states, enabling the tracking of progress, including overall common indicators and measuring impact, as well as a joint monitoring process between Member States and the European Commission.
PROBLEM
•The post-2020 EU Roma Strategy and NRIS should put combating antigypsyism at their centre.
•Ensuring cross-cutting priorities, currently unaddressed or under-addressed, such as antigypsyism, intersectional discrimination, poverty, material deprivation, housing evictions, discrimination, child protection, gender mainstreaming, LGBTQI+, environmental racism, diversity within Roma groups etc., Roma participation, Roma identity and cultural heritage.
LEGAL BASIS FOR EU INITIATIVE
•The Race Equality Directive, including art. 5 on positive measures
B. AIMS
- It is not clear of the commitment level required from MS to achieve such aims. Are these minimum standards/objectives and what are the indicators for each objective? The aims, specific objectives and indicators need to be clearly stated.
•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 by other relevant areas mentioned above.
•The next EU Roma Strategy must demand that all MS formally recognise antigypsyism as a specific form of racism against Roma beyond the general ground already embedded in the EU/national legislation pertaining to “race or ethnicity”.
•Introducing 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, with measurable EU and national indicators for all policy areas included in the Roma Strategies, to be monitored on an annual basis.
- Objective no 4) increase effective Roma participation in paid employment - should include "representation" next to "participation" and "and public spaces" next to "employment".
- Additional topics should include migration and intra-EU mobility
- What does “common but differentiated” mean, that MS can still have flexibility over indicators or horizontal themes? This should not be the case. NRS have to include the same minimum standards and indicators. In addition, countries where the situation is worse, can increase, not decrease the percentages. None of the EU countries can claim that the minimum standards do not meet their realities.
- 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 also meet the SDG 2030, Social Pillar etc.
- The new Strategy needs to be fully integrated in the European Semester, and work in synergy with the successor of Europe 2020, the European Pillar of Social Rights, SDGs, OSCE Action Plan for Roma and Sinti, CoE Roma and Travellers Action Plan 2019-2021.
C. Consultation
- It is not clear of the purpose, timeline and methods of consultation
-The Roadmap does not include any description of how Roma participation is ensured, in line with Art 11 of the Treaty of TEU
EVIDENCE
- It is the role of FRA to come out with a clear methodology for MS on how to collect ethnic data on Roma, in line with RED art 5 and GDPR.
Read full responseMeeting with Diederik Samsom (Cabinet of Executive Vice-President Frans Timmermans) and European Youth Forum and
19 Feb 2020 · European Green Deal
Meeting with Helena Dalli (Commissioner)
28 Jan 2020 · Roma inclusion; holocaust remembrance day
Meeting with Monika Ladmanova (Cabinet of Commissioner Věra Jourová)
18 Nov 2015 · Roma issues
Meeting with Monika Ladmanova (Cabinet of Commissioner Věra Jourová)
16 Sept 2015 · Roma issues
Meeting with Věra Jourová (Commissioner) and
23 Jul 2015 · Roma issues
Meeting with Monika Ladmanova (Cabinet of Commissioner Věra Jourová)
16 Jul 2015 · Roma issues
Meeting with Monika Ladmanova (Cabinet of Commissioner Věra Jourová)
26 May 2015 · Roma issues
Meeting with Věra Jourová (Commissioner)
22 Jan 2015 · Presentation of the network, exchange of views