On 9th December EU Ministers adopted a new Recommendation on “effective Roma Integration Strategies”. The Recommendation, although not legally binding, is the strongest EU instrument for Roma inclusion so far and is meant to strengthen the EU Framework for National Roma Integration Strategies. The Recommendation aims to speed up progress by focusing the attention of the Member States on a number of concrete measures that are crucial for implementing their Strategies more effectively. Eurodiaconia hopes that the adoption of the Recommendation will be a sign of greater commitment and engagement from Member States to step up the social inclusion of Roma across Europe (see our briefing and the proposed Recommendation).
Member States now have two years to put the measures stipulated in the Recommendation into practice and progress will be monitored by the Commission on an annual basis. Read the Recommendation here.
Eurodiaconia has been following the progress of the National Roma Integration Strategies and in 2013 sent the European two assessments of the implementation carried out by members according to their experience, (see here for the latest assessment).