Promoting the social inclusion of Roma

Roma in the EU face unacceptable levels of poverty and social exclusion and are victims of extensive discrimination. At the same time, this cannot be divorced from the wider problem of poverty, social exclusion and discrimination that affects many other groups. Also, the current economic crisis and austerity measures which hit the most vulnerable hardest are worsening the situation. There is an urgent need to break this cycle of poverty, social exclusion and discrimination. The European Commission’s 2011 Communication, An EU Framework for National Roma Integration Strategies up to 2020, has launched a process to achieve this and these Synthesis Report and country reports are intended to assist this process.

The Network Core Team's Synthesis Report is based on individual country reports prepared by members of the EU Network of Independent Experts on Social Inclusion. The experts’ reports cover five elements: description of the national situation; assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of the existing policy and governance framework; the contribution of EU Structural Funds; the role of civil society organisations and international organisations.  They conclude by making recommendations on the key elements that should inform National Roma Integration Strategies if they are to be effective.

The structure of the Synthesis Report follows that of the national reports. However, it also contains a series of suggestions for advancing future work at national and EU level on promoting the social inclusion of Roma.

It should be noted that the experts for those Member States with very few Roma (i.e. LU, MT) did not prepare reports on Roma but prepared reports on migrants. Also, the experts for Cyprus and Denmark, given the small numbers concerned, only produced short reports on Roma as part of wider reports on migrants and/or other ethnic minorities.  These four reports are also published here.

Related documents

Synthesis report | en |

Newsletter | en |