Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-09-07-Speech-2-344"
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"en.20100907.28.2-344"2
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"Mr President, as Vice-President Reding has just pointed out, the European Union is based on fundamental rights and values, and the Commission is fully committed to protecting the fundamental rights of the Roma and their full social and economic integration into our societies.
The Commission is currently implementing or planning projects worth EUR 50 million which target the Roma exclusively or in part.
The Commission has convened high-level events in Member States with large Roma minorities to promote better use of EU funds for integration of the Roma. In Hungary, this set in motion a dialogue between the national authorities and the Roma under the auspices of the Commission.
A second series of high-level events involving Commissioner Cioloş and myself will take place in Romania in October.
Lastly, at this House’s request, the Commission is implementing a pilot project entitled ‘Pan-European coordination of Roma integration methods – Roma inclusion’. This comprises three components, relating to early childhood education and care, self-employment and micro-loans, and information and awareness-raising activities. Related actions began in May 2010.
There are EU funds and instruments available to help resolve the delicate legal, human and practical issues involved in Roma integration. We in the Commission are ready to do our utmost to resolve these. I strongly believe that Europe 2020 is the right framework to fight poverty, and thus also to improve the conditions of the Roma people in Europe.
Let us stand by our principles, resist easy but false solutions, and tackle this issue together in the spirit of solidarity.
The second point I want to stress is that Roma inclusion is a joint responsibility of the European Union and the Member States. Successful social and economic integration of the Roma calls for a sustained commitment, based on cooperation between all concerned: the Commission, the Member States, local governments, NGOs and international organisations.
The Commission did not wait for the recent, very unfortunate, events to spur it into action. On 7 April this year, the Commission outlined a strategic and comprehensive approach in its first ever policy communication on the social and economic integration of the Roma in Europe. This sets priorities for action by the Commission and the Member States in a wide range of areas of relevance to Roma integration.
The Commission is committed to improving the effectiveness of instruments and policies in terms of both content and process, and stresses the importance of closer cooperation between EU, national and international players and Roma communities.
The communication also reaffirms the Commission’s commitment to encouraging and assisting the Member States to make full use of the potential of the Structural Funds to support the social and economic integration of the Roma.
EU Structural Funds offer a very useful financial lever for supporting national efforts to improve the situation of the Roma. Of the 27 Member States, 12 Member States – including old and relatively new Member States – have support programmes in place targeting the Roma, among other vulnerable groups, for a total of EUR 17.5 billion, including EUR 13.3 billion from the European Social Fund.
Examples of projects include grassroots interventions to promote employment of the Roma and the development of a new curriculum of Roma studies in schools.
In addition, as the Vice-President also said, the ERDF was amended in May this year and that fund can now be used to support the renovation of housing in rural areas where many Roma live.
Inclusion of the Roma is also an important political criterion for membership of the European Union, and the EU supports candidate countries and potential candidates in this connection through the pre-accession instruments."@en1
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