Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-06-01-Speech-4-042"
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"en.20060601.4.4-042"2
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"Mr President, I should like to thank my colleague, Mrs Járóka, for her excellent own-initiative report.
I should like to stress a couple of points. Firstly, on the issue of education, Romani women are, in effect, in a situation of double discrimination: first, as a member of the Roma minority and, second, as members of the weaker sex. The gap in education levels between boys and girls is unacceptably wide, with many girls failing to receive even primary education. This puts them in a permanent position of disadvantage, both within and outside the realms of their own community.
Secondly, access to healthcare: here again, Romani women are in a position of unacceptable weakness, especially on issues relating to reproductive and sexual health. Efforts need to be stepped up to provide basic reproductive education and to prevent coercive sterilisation. At present, many Romani women are in effect denied their right to their own body and their own health – a sovereign right of any individual.
The many necessary steps identified in the report are all fundamental to lifting many Romani women out of the spiral of disadvantage they are born into and are prevented from leaving. Most of these steps can be accomplished as part of the mainstreaming programmes in ensuring equality of opportunity and would thus not impose new burdensome regulatory effects on Member States. Racial segregation and biased attitudes in a wider society are to blame, but responsibility must also lie with the Romani communities themselves.
I look forward to continuing the dialogue with Mrs Járóka and others at European level. I am sure that Finland, my Member State, is very committed to this. We have created a Romani forum in the Council of Europe. We believe that this is an important issue, which will also be important in the future, especially when we look at enlargement with Bulgaria and Romania, where the minority is quite large."@en1
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