Plight of Europe's 10 million Roma discussed Tuesday afternoon

The plight of Europe's 10 million Roma population will fall under the spotlight Tuesday afternoon when MEPs discuss an upcoming Roman summit. They will be putting questions to the European Commission and Council of Ministers about what is being done to improve the plight of the Roma. Physical and verbal violence and unequal access to services are just some of the issues that will be raised.

Ahead of the second EU Roma summit on 8 April in Cordoba, Spain, the issue of Europe's largest ethnic minority is once again on the agenda.

Responsibility of all EU States

A recent meeting at the European Parliament saw Roma groups and MEPs meet to discuss what can be done. Hungarian Socialist MEP Kinga Göncz said that thanks to Roma Decade (2005-2015), the issue is no longer the problem of new member states and candidate countries only but in the interest of the whole EU.

She said that "we are missing concrete steps on the EU, national and regional levels. Regional Fund regulations need amending to tackle the Roma question on a more complex level".

Use potential of unemployed

The Parliament's rapporteur for an upcoming EU strategy on Roma inclusion is Hungarian MEP Lívia Járóka who is herself of Roma original.

For her the social inclusion of Roma is not merely a moral issue but strict financial interest of all EU members. She urged educational and labour market integration "since the proportion of the Roma within the active population which carries the social security system on its shoulder is growing steadily and there is a huge potential in the unemployed population".

"We have learned from the intergovernmental initiatives of the past few years that broad political slogans will never become reality without sanctions and obligations. The EU as a community can provide the necessary leverage to force the participants to comply with their own pledges", the Hungarian Roma MEP stressed.

Civil society, solid budget cooperation with the non-Roma community is just some of the initiatives envisaged by Ms Járóka.

The oral questions will be presented by the Socialists and Democrats group and the Greens/EFA.