On the 6th of November 2024, the CEU Romani Studies organized a roundtable discussion titled “Roma inclusion, equality, participation: strategies, limitations, opportunities" with Mirjam Karoly (Romano Centro) Marek Hojsik (CEU Democracy Institute, Roma Civil Monitor), and Marcela Adamova (European Commission) as guest speakers. Marko Pecak and Marton Rovid from CEU facilitated the discussion.
Mirjam Karoly, from Romano Centro, introduced into policies targeting Roma communities in Austria and critically discussed its impact, potential and limits. Over centuries exclusionary and discriminatory policies and legal measures negatively affected Roma, which culminated under the National Socialism leading to the extermination of over ninety per cent of the pre-war Roma population in Austria. In the late 1980ies the new forming Roma movement triggered a change to the discriminatory post-war policies by demanding recognition of the racial persecution during the Holocaust and the recognition of an ethnic croup in Austria to benefit from the minority rights framework. Additionally, in 2011 the Austrian Roma Inclusion Strategy was adopted which expanded policy measures to all Roma in Austria irrespective their nationality or status as an ethnic group. Mirjam elaborated that the minority rights framework is not sufficient to address overall inclusion and combat discrimination while the Roma Strategy lacks a vision and its implementation does not account to the post-pandemic challenges facing Roma in Austria.
Marcela Adamova, leader of the Roma Policies Coordination Team at the European Commission, discussed the Roma in EU Policies. More specifically, her presentation considered the role of the EU Roma Strategic framework and highlighted that while civil society played an important role in the promotion of Roma inclusion, it needed to be accompanied by national and local administration. Marcela presented different policy instruments targeting Roma including resolutions of the European Parliament, the Council recommendation, and the EU Strategic Framework of the European Commission 2020-2030. Marcela’s presentation showed the lessons learned from the former EU Roma Strategic Framework, and how it informed the current Framework (2020-2030), which aims to tackle equality, inclusion, and participation of the Roma in EU member states. Finally, she also presented other initiatives from the European Commission that work with Roma and Pro-Roma civil society.
Marek Hojsik followed Marcela’s presentation. He is the coordinator of the Roma Civil Monitor (RCM), an initiative implemented by CEU in cooperation with other organizations. RCM has three aims: supporting the capacity building of civil society organizations, producing monitoring reports, and advocacy work of civil society. The work of RCM has produced detailed and comprehensive reports assessing the performance of governments in matters of Roma inclusion/exclusion, challenges, and discrimination. These reports also provide an informed analysis of needs in different member countries.
Currently, RCM is focused on strategy, more specifically, on how Roma and Roma civil society are involved in the development of strategies in different countries. Marek described his experience working with Roma populations across Europe and pointed out the diversity both in the situations of different countries since the EU enlargement and in the Roma civil society organizations and movements across the continent. Lastly, he described the importance of context in determining the priorities for local NGOs. RCM has observed an improvement in policy-making throughout the NGOs they have been working with which has had a tangible positive effect in their local contexts.
Marko Pecak brought to the discussion the issue of the construction of discriminatory policies towards Roma and the role of Roma civil society in pushing back against it. He gave credit to the EU, its programs, and the civil society for the progress achieved.
The conversation continued with questions and interventions from the moderators and the audience, discussing the particular national context of Austria—which experienced a momentum that led to great empowerment within the movement, but reached critical points, for example, during the pandemic. The speakers also commented on the Roma dialogue meetings and shared their experiences with this strategy.
Overall, the roundtable discussion brought forward perspectives on the implementation of EU policies in different countries, the role of Roma and Pro-Roma civil society in the advancement of Roma inclusion, and examples of successful initiatives both by the EU and by other actors, such as RCM. Finally, the funding of the different initiatives was briefly discussed, limitations and challenges were noted, and a conversation on the possible way(s) forward took place.
