The European Parliament’s Socialist Group reaffirms today, during the conference " Towards a European Roma Strategy:From Commitment to Results", that it’s aim is a better and more effective European Roma policy.
"This could take a variety of forms, touching several policy fields and involving the European institutions, member states and civil society", said Jan Marinus Wiersma, the Socialist Group’s vice-president and one of the coordinators of Roma issues.
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The conclusions of the conference are defined by Jan Marinus WiersmaModerator Adrian Severin stressed the challenges of the Roma Strategy
"The title of the conference rightly indicates that the integration of Roma requires more than EU action plan, it requires a concentrated effort of a wide range of actors", underlined Vladimir Spidla, European Commissioner for Social Affairs, so that "the decade of Roma Inclusion can indeed become the broad coalition".
The conference debated a first draft of the PES Roma strategy, which aims to identify the action areas for improving the situation of the Roma communities and suggests useful concepts for a European Roma strategy. Its aim is to stimulate other initiatives at European level dealing with Roma people. One of the main conclusions of the debates was, that, as ever, "there remains a gap between rhetoric and substance. The political challenge is to move beyond simply paying lip service to the notion of Roma participation. This remains vital in order to mobilize the necessary political will from above and below to make any tangible difference".
A delegation of the Socialists will make fact finding trips to explore the situation of Roma communities on the ground and witness circumstances in Roma settlements.
The strategy should be seen as part of the Group’s activities related to the "Year of Intercultural Dialogue".
