Newsroom

First European Summit on Roma

On September 16th took place in Brussels and under the auspices of the Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and the French Presidency of the European Union, the first European Summit on Roma organized by the DG for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities of the European Commission.

This high-level event was aimed at bringing together representatives of EU institutions, Member States and Civil Society to hold an open debate on the instruments and policies for inclusion of Roma as well as its national implementation.

The event brought together over 400 representatives from EU Institutions, National Governments and Parliamentarians and civil society, including Roma organizations. It is worth noting the presence at this Summit of the Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, the Vice-President Jacques Barrot (Justice and Home Affairs), the Commissioners Danuta Hübner (Regional Policy), Vladimir Spidla (Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities), Jan Figel (Education, Training, Culture and Youth), as well as Bernard Kouchner, Minister of Foreign and European Affairs (French Presidency) and several ministers of the member states and candidate countries among the speakers.

In the following Web can download the agenda of the Summit and other information of interest: http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=88&langId=en&eventsId=105&furtherEvents=yes

As a basis for the discussions it has been used the working document "Non-discrimination and equal opportunities: a renewed commitment" and its annex on "Tools and policies for inclusion of Roma". That can also be downloaded in the mentioned Web Page.

EU Roma Policy Coalition STATEMENT

On the occasion of this summit, the European Roma Policy Coalition - ERPC, a grouping of NGOs, has published a statement urging the European Union to commit in order to achieve the respect and protection of Roma fundamental rights.

The full text can be downloaded at: http://roma.wieni.be/eu-roma-strategy

A proposal from this Coalition was drafted for the Final Declaration of the Summit that is being disseminated in order to gather as many signatures from the representatives of institutions and organizations participants. The text of this proposal can be downloaded at: http://roma.wieni.be/files/petitions/files/Towards%20an%20EU%20Roma%20Policy_0.pdf

Gallery

400 participants in this Summit
Activists against Ethnic Census
EU President Mr. JM Barroso
Welcome Words
George Soros

Newsroom

First European Summit on Roma

Gallery

This website is cofunded by:

Technical Secretariat: