The European Parliament,

–   having regard to Articles 8, 9, 10, 18, 19, 20, 21 and 151, 153, 157 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, which commit the Member States to ensuring equal opportunities for all citizens and improving their living and working conditions,

–   having regard to Articles 2 and 3 of the Treaty on European Union which enable the EU to take appropriate action to combat discrimination against all citizens and promote respect for human rights,

–   having regard to its resolution of 28 April 2005 on the situation of the Roma in the European Union, its resolution of 1 June 2006 on the situation of Roma women in the European Union, its resolution of 14 November 2007 on application of Directive 2004/38/EC on the right of EU citizens and their families to move and reside freely within the territory of the Member States, its resolution of 28 January 2008 on a European Strategy on the Roma, its resolution of 10 July 2008 on the census of the Roma on the basis of ethnicity in Italy and its resolution of 11 March 2009 on the social situation of the Roma and their improved access to the labour market in the EU,

–   having regard to Directive 2000/43/EC implementing the principle of equal treatment between persons irrespective of racial or ethnic origin, Directive 2000/78/EC establishing a general framework for equal treatment in employment and occupation, and the Framework Decision on combating racism and xenophobia (2008/913/JHA), which was agreed in 2008 and provides for approximation of the laws and regulations which Member States should follow for offences involving racism and xenophobia, and the Directive on the right to move and reside freely within the EU (2004/38/EC), which was adopted in 2004 and guarantees that all citizens have the right of free movement throughout the EU provided that they are working or seeking employment, studying, or are self-sufficient or retired,

–   having regard to the report on racism and xenophobia in the Member States of the EU in 2009, published by the Fundamental Rights Agency,

–   having regard to the conclusions of the European Council of December 2007 and June 2008, the conclusions of the General Affairs Council of December 2008 and the Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Council’s conclusions on inclusion of the Roma, adopted in Luxembourg on 8 June 2009,

–   having regard to Council Framework Decision 2008/913/JHA of 28 November 2008 on combating certain forms and expressions of racism and xenophobia,

–   having regard to the establishment in 2005 of the Decade of Roma Inclusion and the Roma Education Fund, by a number of EU Member States, candidate countries and other countries in which the Union institutions have a significant presence

–   having regard to the first Roma Summit, which took place in Brussels on 16 September 2008 and to the forthcoming Second European Summit on Roma inclusion which will take place in Córdoba (Spain) on the 8th April 2010, and is a key event of the Spanish Council Presidency,

–   having regard to the forthcoming report by its Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs on the ‘EU Strategy on Roma Inclusion’, which is due in late 2010,

–   having regard to the Ten Common Basic Principles on Roma Inclusion,

–   having regard to the questions of 12 February 2010 (O-0017/2010 – B7‑0013/2010, O‑0018/2010 – B7‑0014/2010) and 24 February 2010 (O-0028/2010 – B7‑0202/2010, O‑0029‑ B7-0203/2010) to the Council and to the Commission on the Second European Roma Summit,

–   having regard to Rules 115(5) and 110(2) of its Rules of Procedure,

A. whereas the 10-12 million European Roma continue to suffer serious structural discrimination and, in many cases, are subject to severe poverty and social exclusion; whereas a majority of European Roma became EU citizens after the 2004 and 2007 enlargements, hence benefiting from the right of EU citizens and their families to move and reside freely within the territory of the Member States,

B.  whereas the situation of European Roma, being traditionally present in many European countries, is distinct from that of European national minorities, justifying specific measures at European level,

C. whereas many Roma individuals and communities who decided to settle in a different EU Member State from the one of their national citizenship are in a particularly vulnerable position,

D. whereas the EU has a variety of instruments that can be used to combat the exclusion of Roma, such as stimulating the use of EU Structural Funds by EU Member States in order to support Roma inclusion,

E.  whereas the European Union has committed itself on several occasions to actively promoting the principles of equal opportunities and social inclusion with regard to the Roma population across Europe,

F.  the in the past year there has been a significant increase in anti-Gypsyism in the mass media and in political discourse in some of the EU Member States, as well as an increasing incidence of racially motivated violence against Roma,

G. whereas progress in combating discrimination against Roma in the form of fulfilling their rights to education, employment, health and housing in both the Member States and candidate countries has been uneven and slow,

H. whereas most Roma women face double discrimination as both Roma and women,

1.  Condemns the recent rise of anti-Gypsyism (Romaphobia) across several EU Member States, which has taken the form of regular hate‑speech and anti-Roma attacks;

2.  Considers that fighting discrimination against Roma, who are a pan-European community, requires a comprehensive approach at European level;

3.  Expresses its concerns at the discrimination suffered by Roma in education (particularly segregation), housing (particularly forced evictions and sub-standard living conditions, often in ghettos), employment (their particularly low employment rate) and equal access to health care systems and other public services, as well as the astoundingly low level of their political participation; calls on the Commission and the Member States to ensure that equal opportunity measures are strictly followed under the Structural Funds, so that projects do not directly or indirectly strengthen the segregation and exclusion of Roma; calls for rapid implementation of the revised ERDF regulations and in particular Article 7 thereof, which reinforces the role of the Structural Funds in housing policy; calls on the European Commission to ensure that the recently adopted Microfinance Facility is accessible to the Roma in order to support their integration into the labour market;

4.  Recognizes that full citizenship and the socio-economic participation of Roma are conditioned by a history of discrimination and social stigma; considers that a mainstreaming approach to Roma inclusion needs to be complemented by proactive measures to overcome past and present discrimination; calls on the European Commission to pay due attention to this aspect in its approach to Roma inclusion;

5.  Considers that the EU and the Member States share a responsibility to promote the inclusion of Roma and uphold their fundamental rights as European citizens, and urgently need to increase their efforts to achieve visible results in this area; calls on the Member States and the EU institutions to support the necessary measures in order to create an adequate social and political environment for implementing the inclusion of Roma, for example by supporting public education tolerance campaigns for the non-Roma population on Roma culture and integration, both in the country of citizenship and in the country of European residence;

6.  Welcomes the Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Council’s conclusions on the Inclusion of Roma, adopted in Luxembourg on 8 June 2009, which integrate the Common Basic Principles on Roma Inclusion, and invite the Commission and the Member States to take account of them ‘when designing and implementing policies to defend fundamental rights, uphold gender equality, combat discrimination, poverty and social exclusion, and ensure access to education, housing, health, employment, social services, justice, sports and culture, and also in the EU’s relations with third countries’; welcomes the request to the Commission to ‘undertake concrete steps to make Community instruments and policies relevant for Roma inclusion more effective’;

7.  Expresses deep concern that, in view of the urgency of the matter, the European Commission has thus far not responded to its request of 28 January 2008 to prepare a European Strategy on Roma, in cooperation with the Member States, aimed at better coordinating and promoting efforts to improve the situation of the Roma population;

8.  Looks forward to the European Commission’s communication to be presented after the next European Summit on Roma inclusion, which will examine the existing policies and instruments to improve Roma inclusion and the factors behind the unsatisfactory progress to date; calls for the communication to include clear objectives and mechanisms for the future designing of policy on Roma;

9.  Calls on the new European Commissioners to prioritise the Roma‑related issues covered by their portfolios, while establishing as a priority an effective system of coordination between Commissioners and between Directorates-General to tackle Roma issues at EU level; calls on the Commission to designate one of its Commissioners as responsible for coordinating Roma policy;

10. Encourages the EU institutions to involve Roma communities, from the grassroots level up to that of NGOs participating in international consultation, into the process of developing a comprehensive EU policy on Roma, in all aspects of planning, implementation and supervision, and also to utilise the experiences of the Decade of Roma Inclusion 2005‑2015, the OSCE Action Plan, and the recommendations of the Council of Europe, the United Nations and Parliament itself;

11. Requests the Commission to take a horizontal approach to Roma issues and to develop additional proposals to deliver policy coherence at the European level regarding the social inclusion of Roma, to prompt Member States to greater efforts to achieve visible results, to encourage a critical analysis of policy failures, to facilitate the exchange of best practices between Member States and to harness all the lessons learnt from the Roma Pilot project, which should feed into the mainstream policies;

12. Encourages the Summit organiser and the EU to define a clear political follow-up to the Summit conclusions, in order to avoid previous situations where neither political conclusions nor concrete proposals were adopted; considers that the Summit should not be declarative in nature but should focus on strategic policy commitments that show a political will to close the gap between Roma communities and majority populations;

13. Urges the Commission and Council to make use of existing initiatives such as the Decade of Roma Inclusion to heighten the efficacy of efforts in this area;

14. Considers it essential that a complex development program be established that targets simultaneously all the related policy areas and makes immediate intervention possible in ghetto areas struggling with serious structural disadvantages;

15. Stresses that anti-discrimination measures alone are insufficient as a means of facilitating the social inclusion of Roma, but that a concerted Community effort on a firm legal basis is needed in order to coordinate measures by institutional and societal stakeholders and to force the parties concerned to fulfil their own pledges, accepting thereby also the need for a clear legislative commitment and credible budgetary appropriations;

16. Calls on the Council to adopt a common position on structural and pre-accession funding policy, reflecting European political commitment to fully harness the opportunities of these funds to promote Roma inclusion and to ensure that the Common Basic Principles on Roma Inclusion are fully taken into account in any revisions of operational programmes and resource allocation procedures, including priorities for the planning period 2014-2020; urges the Commission to analyse and evaluate the social effect of the investments of the pre-accession and structural funds targeting Roma inclusion to date, to draw the consequences and to devise new strategies and rules if this is considered necessary in this field;

17. Stresses that the candidate countries must be involved in the European‑level pursuit of Roma integration as soon as possible, since accession negotiations grant an unparalleled opportunity to trigger a substantial shift in governmental attitudes towards Roma;

18. Highlights the precarious situation of many Roma who, in exercising their freedom of movement within the Union, have migrated within the EU; stresses that any measures taken in respect of these groups must adhere to European standards and legislation, and calls on the European Commission and the Member States to establish whether there is a need for a coordinated European approach;

19. Stresses the importance of involving local authorities in ensuring effective implementation of efforts to promote Roma inclusion and combat discrimination; requests the European Commission to develop recommendations for the Member States with a view to encouraging local authorities to make better use of structural funding opportunities to promote Roma inclusion, including the objective monitoring of project implementation;

20. Emphasises the importance of Community‑level organisations of Roma as a key means of ensuring the success of social inclusion policies, as well as the need to involve Roma representatives in all the initiatives aimed at promoting their rights and the inclusion of their communities; considers that there is a need for long‑term strategies to build the professional and organisational capacity of Roma and to develop Roma human resources as a horizontal priority; stresses that the political independence and empowerment of Roma self-organisation in terms of financial, academic and human resources is vital in accelerating the social inclusion of Roma;

21. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the to the Council, the Commission, the governments and the parliaments of the Member States and the candidate countries, the Council of Europe and the OSCE.