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Czech Senate rejects EU efforts to improve Romani integration

03 December 2013
2 minute read

The Czech Senate has rejected a proposal from the European Commission for EU Member States to introduce social measures targeting Romani people, saying that the delivering of aid according to ethnic criteria is unconstitutional. The senators agreed that Romani integration, given the diversity of Romani communities, should be conducted nationally according to local conditions.  

"Any divisions along the lines of ethnicity, nationality or sex lead only to one solution, that of concentration camps. No one anywhere has ever invented a different solution. That is the danger we face here," said Senate Vice-Chair Zdeněk Škromach.

In the vice-chair’s view, the EU should dedicate itself more to questions of social exclusion framed along civic principles. The Commission’s proposal recommends the Member States adopt targeted measures to ensure Romani people have equal access to education, employment, health care and housing.  

The senators objected to the claim that discrimination in access to education or health care occurs in the Czech Republic. They also disagreed with the requirement that jobs be reserved in local and state administrations for Romani candidates. 

The senators did express support for developing social housing projects. Jaroslav Kubera, the chair of the ODS (Civic Democrats) group, said the recommendations were "imperious advice" that offended him.  

"This is, colloquially speaking, bullshit, bullshit, bullshit," Kubera declared. In his view, Romani unemployment could be successfully reduced by introducing a system that would make it possible to pay workers daily instead of monthly.

Kubera also recommended "restricting the production of children for the purpose of profit" from welfare. For his part, outgoing Czech PM Jiří Rusnok said the EU recommendations advise the Member States to allocate sufficient financing for domestic and local action plans and strategies to aid Romani people.  

Rusnok said the EU wants to provide a corresponding amount of money for Romani aid through the European Social Fund in its 2014 – 2020 budget. "In an extreme case, therefore, the EU bodies could force the implementation of a particular statute by restricting the country’s access to the process for drawing on financial resources from the EU funds," the PM warned.   

Rusnok believes the Czech Government identifies with the principles of the recommendations, which have only limited legal force. Many changes were successfully made to the final text of the recommendations to define their objective and improve their workability, and the proposal should be decided on this month by the EU Council for Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs.  

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