MOTION FOR A RESOLUTION
20.4.2005
pursuant to Rule 103(2) of the Rules of Procedure
by Vittorio Emanuele Agnoletto, Giusto Catania, Bairbre de Brún, Ilda Figueiredo, Mary Lou McDonald, Sylvia-Yvonne Kaufmann and Erik Meijer
on behalf of the GUE/NGL Group
on the situation of Roma people in the European Union
B6‑0274/2005
European Parliament resolution on the situation of Roma people in the European Union
The European Parliament,
– having regard to Articles 2, 6, 7 and 29 of the EU Treaty and Article 13 of the EC Treaty, which commit the Member States to upholding the highest standards of human rights and non-discrimination, and to the European Charter of Fundamental Rights,
– having regard to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the UN International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights,
– having regard to Directive 43/2000/EC,[1] known as the Race Equality Directive, which bans discrimination on grounds of race,
– having regard to Article 4 of the Council of Europe Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities and to the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms,
– having regard to Article 3 of Recommendation 1557 (2002) of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly, which underlines the widespread discrimination against Roma and the need to strengthen the monitoring system on discrimination against them,
– having regard to the annual and thematic reports adopted by the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia,
– noting the recent publication by the European Commission of a report drawing attention to very disturbing levels of hostility and human rights abuses against Roma, Gypsies and Travellers in Europe,[2]
– having regard to Rule 103(2) of its Rules of Procedure,
A. whereas Article 13 of the EC Treaty prohibits all forms of discrimination, particularly those based on ‘racial’ or ‘ethnic’ origin and religion or belief,
B. whereas new forms and acts of racism and xenophobia have been perpetrated against minorities such as the Roma throughout the Union, and discrimination on ethnic grounds continues to be practised at various levels, notwithstanding the measures adopted by the European Union in application of Article 13 of the EC Treaty,
C. whereas throughout the Union Roma, who collectively form the largest ethnic minority group in the enlarged EU, remain amongst the groups most vulnerable to discrimination in a number of old and new Member States and in candidate countries,
D. whereas the Roma minority have to face daily discrimination in the labour market, and their right to work is not fully respected,
E. whereas most of the Roma population live in poverty and social exclusion, and in some EU Member States they have to face serious social security benefit reductions,
F. recognising that an improvement in access to education and opportunities for academic achievement for Roma is crucial to the advancement of Romani communities’ wider prospects; whereas most of the Roma population have limited access to education, and their right to benefit from cultural freedom and scientific progress is endangered,
G. recognising that the social situation of many Romani communities in Member States and candidate countries merits concerted attention and commitment of resources,
H. recognising the need to ensure effective Roma participation in political life, particularly as regards decisions which affect the lives and well-being of Roma communities,
I. stressing that in no case should new citizenship laws be drafted and implemented in such a way as to discriminate against legitimate claimants to citizenship or to withhold citizenship from long-term Roma inhabitants of the Member State concerned,
J. recalling that the Roma people deserve full recognition of the gravity of Nazi crimes designed physically to exterminate them,
1. Strongly condemns all the kinds of systematic discrimination faced by the Roma in a number of key areas – such as education, access to health care, employment and housing – in many EU Member States and in candidate countries;
2. Calls on the Council, the Member States and the candidate countries to condemn all intolerance, incitement, harassment and violence against the Roma; calls for the enactment of comprehensive anti-discrimination legislation addressing racial and ethnic discrimination in all areas of public life;
3. Requests the Commission to initiate a directive specifically aimed at encouraging the integration of the Roma;
4. Underlines that the lack of personal documents – including, but not limited to, birth certificates, personal identity documents, local residence permits, documents relating to State-provided health insurance and social welfare, and passports – is a serious obstacle to the exercise of basic rights by Roma throughout Europe, as well as to their access to services which are crucial to social inclusion;
5. Calls on the Commission, the Council, the Member States and the candidate countries to recognise the Roma as a distinct ethnic minority;
6. Encourages the Member States and candidate countries to acknowledge the Roma as a linguistic minority;
7. Calls on the Member States and candidate countries to adopt measures aimed at facilitating access to justice for Roma, including establishing, funding and effectively implementing an entitlement to legal assistance for indigent persons, including, but not limited to, Roma, charged with crimes and/or bringing civil legal action in order to assert legal rights;
8. Deplores the almost complete lack of official, publicly available and reliable Roma‑specific statistics relevant to EU social inclusion and anti-discrimination policy, particularly on the situation of Romani women and children; supports the Commission’s attempt to raise the issue of collecting ethnicity statistics with Member States;
9. Calls on the Member States and candidate countries to guarantee the Roma minority the right to work, labour market access based on equal and satisfactory conditions, and the right to benefit from a social security system guaranteeing them an adequate standard of living;
10. Calls on the Member States and candidate countries to guarantee the Roma minority equal access to education and equal opportunities to benefit from the advantages of cultural freedom and scientific progress;
11. Underlines the need to guarantee equal social and political rights to migrants of Romani origin;
12. Welcomes the Commission’s steps to address some of the issues, including the establishment of an inter-DG group to look at Roma issues across a range of Commission departments;
13. Invites the Member States and candidate countries to finance acts aimed at overcoming the ‘camp system’ and to promote a real dialogue and participation by Roma representatives with a view to reaching new solutions while ensuring that housing policies do not foster segregation;
14. Calls on the Commission to encourage all Member States and candidate countries to treat Roma, Gypsies and/or Travellers as a target group for the purposes of their National Action Plans on Social Inclusion, Lifelong Learning, Employment, Housing and other relevant policy frameworks;
15. Welcomes the annual marking of Roma Nation Day on 8 April, serving to remind us that the Roma members of our community are still subject to various levels of racism and discrimination and to draw attention to the new-found confidence and recognition that the Roma community now have within Europe;
16. Calls on the Commission to facilitate the establishment of a pan-European steering group on Roma issues involving relevant EU bodies, Council of Europe bodies, the OSCE, Member State governments and representatives of relevant civil society organisations and of the Roma communities, which would meet regularly to ensure the cohesion of Roma‑specific policies across Europe and to join forces on specific initiatives;
17. Calls on the Commission to encourage Member States, candidate countries and other countries where Roma live to undertake, via a specific budget, awareness-raising campaigns specifically targeting the problems of anti-Romani racism and the current social exclusion crisis that Roma in Europe are facing;
18. Calls on governments to take steps to increase the number of Roma educators and teachers’ assistants and to ensure that educational texts include material on Romani history and culture, especially in regions and localities with substantial Romani populations;
19. Calls on the Commission to come up with a proposal to amend EU anti-discrimination legislation, in particular Directive 2000/43/EC, so that it covers issues relating to the right to personal documents;
20. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission and the governments and parliaments of the Member States and candidate countries.