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The European Commission has published a background report about the Europan Social Fund and Roma. The report "The European Social Fund and Roma" consists of two chapters and a set of conclusions. Chapter one describes the Roma communities' history in Europe and the challenges they face in society, such as discrimination, limited access to employment, education, health and social services. These issues are then linked to the policies adopted at by the EU and other international institutions.

The interventions and achievements of the ESF for the Roma communities constitute the second and core chapter of this report. The concluding section contains a summary of the findings and looks in particular at the continuity in ESF assistance for Roma across the programming periods.

The ESF has invested a minimum of 230 million Euros in direct activities addressed to Roma population (2000-2006), mainly in the areas of employment, training, education, fight against discrimination, capacity building of NGO, and health, in this order. Besides general conclusions, the report also contains information regarding more than 100 projects targeting this group and selects some of them with concrete outcomes.

Among the main aspects of the support of the ESF and EQUAL to Roma population between 2000 and 2006 the following can be emphasized:

• 11 Member States programmed activities addressed to Roma population (among others vulnerable groups) with an investment of 3,000 million Euros.
• The interventions were planned within the framework of 57 operative programmes with a total of 3.3 million people as beneficiaries (among them, Roma people).
• Hungary, Ireland, Slovakia and Spain programmed interventions in the framework of ten measures specifically addressed to Roma population.
• Within the framework of the EQUAL, 109 groupings of development of 18 Member States also were addressed to Roma population. Half of those initiatives directly targeted the Roma communities, which represents 3% of all EQUAL initiatives.

In relation to the support of the ESF to the Roma population for the present period of programming (2007-2013) it is possible to highlight:

• Several Member States included Roma population as targeted group in the objectives of their programmes.
• The Roma communities could be beneficiary of initiatives that represent 27% of the total budget of the ESF. In Hungary and Romania, Roma population is potential beneficiary of more than a 50% of the planned interventions, whereas in Ireland, travellers constitute a potential objective of 99.5% of the activities supported by the ESF.
• The Czech Republic, Poland, Rumania, Slovakia and Spain have assigned 172 million Euros to activities addressed exclusively to the Roma population. 

This report is available only in English. A brochure summarising the findings of this study is available in English, French, German, Spanish, Italian and Polish at http://ec.europa.eu/esf