MINELRES: Fwd: Newsletters of Policy Center for Roma and Minorities

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Original sender: Roma Virtual Network <romale@zahav.net.il>


Policy Center for Roma and Minorities: Updates

In Brief 

- Social inclusion of Roma at the EU level stalled by endless reports with no 
follow-up and mechanisms with ambiguous responsibilities and no �teeth.� 

- Roundtable suggests coherent, regularly collected ethnic segregated 
indicators a precondition to efficient policies and implementation.

Brussels, October 20, 2009 - Roundtable on Roma housing organized by the 
European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) � Policy Center � position 
expressed during the meeting (for full brief please see 
www.policycenter.eu/newsletter.htm)

Except from the brief on the meeting: 
�on the background of continuing degradation of Roma living conditions, a 
plethora of reports and recommendations continue to be the main output of many 
European institutions and NGOs, while there is no agreed methodology of 
collecting ethnic data in the EU and no concrete mechanism for political 
pressure on the Member States on adopting measures specified by these reports. 
Considering all these, influencing political will at the national level should 
be the main EU priority at the moment, as housing falls mainly into the 
responsibility of the Member States, not EU.�

Despite many useful reports produced or commissioned by different EU 
institutions, we are witnessing a reduction in actual pressure applied to 
Member State governments regarding policy implementation. We are deeply worried 
about what we consider a poor and rather haphazard strategy of the European 
Union and Member States. As long as the main focus, when it comes to Roma 
inclusion, is on the production of reports and the establishment of informal 
mechanisms with shared and ambiguous responsibilities, but with no �teeth,� the 
situation cannot improve. Some of the most recent reports only repeat what has 
been written before and what all concerned parties already know: the situation 
of Roma needs to be addressed urgently. Postponing decisions by waiting for yet 
another report may lead to a serious crisis, as Roma continue to face 
exclusion. Such a crisis can and must be prevented.


October 23, 2009 � Bucharest. Policy Center organised the 
roundtable �Discrimination beyond numbers� (for full brief please see 
www.policycenter.eu/newsletter.htm)

Sociologists Marian Preda (Dean of the Faculty of Sociology and Social Work at 
University of Bucharest) and Cosima Rughinis highlighted missing or unreliable 
indicators, lack of a coherent approach regarding data collection, lack of 
reliable ethnic segregated data and a mishmash of methodologies used by 
different pollsters as problems associated with current data collection related 
to minorities.  All panellists agreed on the need for reliable measurements of 
discrimination instead of versus collecting perceptions or attitudes. Long-term 
monitoring of ethnic segregated indicators was considered a precondition to 
efficient policies and implementation.

Policy Center for Roma & Minorities
Bucharest, 010152, Intrarea Rigas 29A, Ap. 31, Sect. 1, Romania. 
Tel: (004) 0742379657 or Fax (004)  0318177092
E-mail: office@policycenter.eu


--------------------------------

The first newsletter of Policy Center for Roma and Minorities is
available at http://www.policycenter.eu/newsletter1.pdf 

Highlights: 

Articles � On EU Roma Platform, Anti-Gypsyism and Madonna 

Policy Center�s initiatives � Movie of the Month, Book of the Month,
Meet with...

Internships and volunteering 

Funding and EU news 

For our latest  opinion article please go to
http://www.policycenter.eu/eui.htm 

If you wish to subscribe to our newsletter please send an e-mail to
office@policycenter.eu .


Best Wishes

Policy Center�s team
www.policycenter.eu


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