17-18 November 2015 | Brussels (Belgium)
Organised by the Open Society Foundations and the S&D; Progressive Alliance Group in the European Parliament, this event aims at bringing together representatives from government, civil society, EU officials, academia and the development community to discuss lessons from practice. Participants will explore and discuss ways forward in adjusting and improving the way EU funds are used for improving the situation of Roma communities in Central-Eastern and South Eastern Europe. More specifically, it will look at the current legal, financial and policy frameworks in place to guarantee Roma inclusion in practice. The conference will also identify how EU officials, national and local authorities can better cooperate with civil society, media, and Roma communities to safeguard transparency and accountability of EU funding for Roma.
It will be a two-day conference. The first day consists a preparatory meeting for civil society and a technical workshop to allow interactions with European Commission officials in order to showcase lessons learned (both in terms of transferable models as well as worst practices), to identify needs and to argue for greater inclusion of local communities in the planning, monitoring and evaluation of EU-funded reforms. The second day consists of a high-level meeting to contextualize the experiences and lessons learned about EU funds and the situation of Roma in a broader policy debate on EU2020 targets, the EU’s annual cycle of economic policy guidance and scrutiny, and the EU budget review.
