Combating Roma Inequality with Numbers
The €1 billion pledge by European Commission president Barroso this week to assist “the most committed and most in need African, Caribbean, and Pacific countries” to reach the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) should be applauded. But much also remains to be done to meet the MDG 2015 deadline for millions of Roma across Europe. Toward that end, Barroso should likewise insist that current and prospective EU members “produce effective results because time is running out.”
The gap between Roma and non-Roma in health, housing, education, and employment remains elusive. Five years into the Decade of Roma Inclusion 2005-15, the Roma plight has attracted unprecedented attention in the wake of the razing of illegal camps, the so-called voluntary repatriations of Roma from France to Romania, and the acrimonious exchanges between Commission officials and President Sarkozy.
Two EU Roma summits, one platform, and many European Parliamentary resolutions later we now see that the issue of Roma exclusion has moved from the margins to the mainstream of policy concerns. There is no doubt that this heightened concern is driven by the prospect of greater numbers of Europe’s poorest people migrating to Europe’s richest nations, rather than an unbridled commitment by political elites to universal values and fundamental human rights. But it has brought attention to the level of desperation that prompts much of the migration.
