Does structural anti-Roma racism exists within European institutions? - Google Groups

7.12.11

Does structural anti-Roma racism exists within European institutions? - Google Groups: "According to the numbers released by the DG Human Resources and Security, there are 339 people in senior management and 1163 in middle management of the European Commission. None of them are Roma or have informal or formal expertise on Roma issues. Since 1984 the Commission has been underlining in its papers that serious measures need to be taken to address Roma exclusion. But until 2009 not a single recognised Roma expert was employed by the European Commission to deal with Roma issues.

... Around 400 million euros has been spent by the European Union on Roma issues over the last ten years. In the last six years there have been seven resolutions of the European Parliament focused on Roma – all underlining discrimination, abuse and exclusion of Roma. There have been two major European Roma Summits since 2008. The European Commission has organized a number of national Roma conferences in the last three years. These were by far the largest conferences on Roma issues and millions of euros were spent on their organization. At all these events, high and mid-level European officials strongly restated the need for Roma participation. This makes the Roma the most discussed ethnic group at the level of the European Union.