The 7th of April 2010 EURoma held an ordinary management committee meeting and a working group session

In the city of Córdoba, Spain, where the Second European Roma Summit was celebrated the 8th April, EURoma members have had their Management Committee meeting and a Working Group session focussed on partnership. They started working together on key messages in order to agree on EURoma proposals for the next regulations of the Structural Funds (2014-2020).

Employment Working Group session

It was focussed on Partnership Alliances for the employment of Roma. Some group of discussion among members analysed different types of partnership in order to identify elements for success and how obstacles can/should be overcome. It is considered partnership as a key element for efficient practices to tackle Roma inclusion in the labour market.

Four experiences were presented: one from public employment services by the Ministry of Labour of United Kingdom; one underlying the added value of working together with civil society made by an NGO called Pakiv; one focusing on the experiences of the United Nations made by a representative of the UNDP Bratislava and another one showing partnership and labour intermediation made by the responsible of the regional employment service in Andalusia (Spain).

Management Committee Meeting (MCM)

This meeting took place at the plenary hall in the Cordoba City Council were the Cordoba’s Councellor for Social Welfare and the head of ESF managing authority of Spain opened the session.

As agreed at the MCM in Rome (24th February), Network partners will start working together on key messages in order to agree on EURoma proposals for the next regulations. The idea is to debate and reach agreement and common positions concerning some topics which could contribute, according to Network partners, to make the use of Structural Funds more efficient for Roma inclusion in the next SF programming period (2014-2020). In that sense, the Technical Secretariat made an internal proposal with objectives, negotiation process step by step and calendar to launch an internal reflexion process to reach a common position as regards next SF regulations.

Most of the MCM has therefore focus on this topic and, in this line the working session has included: a presentation of the EU framework established by the new regulations 2014-2020 and the EU 2020 Strategy as well as the context and stages in the social cohesion policy regarding Roma inclusion.

EURoma visibility

EURoma Network was present at the II European Roma Summit held in Córdoba on 8-9 April and it was included at the programme. Carlos Tortuero, from the Spanish Ministry of Labour and Migration, as leading partner, represented the Network at the plenary roundtable “Assessment of policies: progress and limitations”.

EURoma also had an stand in the Summit and disseminated the EURoma report 2010: The Roma and the Structural Funds.