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Fundamental rights

A “summit” to strengthen the fight against Roma exclusion

(B2) A first european roma summit takes place in Brussels on September 16. It will make it possible to examine the measures making it possible to reinforce the inclusion of the Roma (*) in society, as recommended in a document published at the beginning of the summer by the European Commission. For Vladimir Spidla, European Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities, indeed “the integration of Roma is necessary for social cohesion. Because when a group finds itself on the periphery, the whole social body crumbles.
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The Commission recommended several courses of action:
- Firstly, it is a question of better applying the Community rules, in particular the anti-discrimination directives of 2000. “The instruments and policies are “adequate”. But their application in the Member States remains "lacunate", underlines the report. The strategy based on the defense of rights must be able to rely on an "enabling environment" such as the
bodies responsible for respecting equality (such as the Halde in France).
- Then, it is necessary to have “recourse to the structural funds, a resource “essential to overcome exclusion” according to the Commission.
- Finally, it is necessary to “learn from successful projects and best practices”. The report thus considers that the “best results” have been obtained by “integrated programs tackling the whole panoply of problems and not just one of them”. He cites, for example, the “ACCEDER” program in Spain, which has enabled more than twenty thousand tailor-made vocational training contracts to be concluded with the Roma.

(NGV)

Nicolas Gros Verheyde

Chief editor of the B2 site. Graduated in European law from the University of Paris I Pantheon Sorbonne and listener to the 65th session of the IHEDN (Institut des Hautes Etudes de la Défense Nationale. Journalist since 1989, founded B2 - Bruxelles2 in 2008. EU/NATO correspondent in Brussels for Sud-Ouest (previously West-France and France-Soir).

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