EURoma Network releases this document to provide recommendations on how to set adequate basis in the programming documents, mainly the Partnership Agreement and the EU Cohesion Funds programmes, to ensure that measures implemented in the future have a real impact and contribute to reducing Roma exclusion and discrimination effectively.
The new programming period 2021-2027 reinforces the importance of using EU Funds to address challenges related with Roma equality and inclusion, thus it encourages Member States not only to programme specific measures but also to improve their effectiveness. It is essential to fully align the next EU Cohesion Funds´ programming with the new challenges and priorities established in the new EU Roma Strategic Frame-work for equality, inclusion and participation for 2020 – 2030. Therefore, the purpose of this document is to offer guidance to EU, national & regional departments responsible for programming EU Cohesion Funds, especially ESF+ and ERDF by providing recommendations on how to set adequate basis in the programming documents to ensure that measures implemented in the future have a real impact and contribute to reducing Roma exclusion and discrimination effectively.
It also encourages Member States to go a step further by introducing improvements that were not implemented in the period 2014-2020, thus learning from what has worked well and what has not worked so well. The Checklist calls for making use of the ESF+ Specific Objective (viiia) Promoting socio-economic integration of marginalised communities such as the Roma as the best way to invest in Roma equality and inclusion, together with ERDF Specific Objective 4.3 Increasing the socioeconomic integration of marginalised communities, migrants and disadvantaged groups.
We invite all relevant stakeholders in charge of programming EU Funds and Roma equality and inclusion to have a look at this Checklist, hoping EU Cohesion funds will be used at their full potential to make a change in the lives of many Roma across Europe who still suffer from greatest levels of poverty, social exclusion, discrimination and overall lack of equal treatment and equal opportunities.
With this document EURoma Network aims to influence the programming process that is currently undergoing, expecting that lessons learnt from the past are taken into consideration in the current programming exercise. These improvements can be summarised as follows:
The full document can be found here: Checklist for the Effective Inclusion of Roma interventions within EU Cohesion Funds programming 2021-2027
