Efforts to Improve the Educational Prospects and Living Conditions of Roma Children – How the European Union Is Supporting Member States’ Action for the Socioeconomic Integration of the Roma

The European Union and international organisations adopted several isolated programmes and actions from the mid-1990s to support the social inclusion and socio-economic integration of the Roma, who make up the largest ethnic minority of the European Union and are most exposed to risks of poverty, material deprivation, and discrimination based on ethnic origin. However, the will to accelerate integration efforts and opt for more concerted action at the level of the European Union was articulated only in 2011 with the adoption of the European Framework for National Roma Integration Strategies. This framework identified four main policy fields of action beyond the horizontal priority of fighting non-discrimination: education, employment, health, and housing. However, as the European Union has only limited competences in these policy areas, the main responsibility to bring about tangible change in the situation of the Roma remains with the Member States. Based on the European Framework for National Roma Integration Strategies, Member States adopted their national strategies, whereas the European Commission monitored and evaluated the implementation of the national measures on a regular basis. Progress in the four policy fields in the period of 2011–2019 remained limited. Encouraging results were achieved regarding access to early childhood education and care of Roma children, but the situation did not change or even worsened in other subcategories of action (i.e. segregated schooling persisted). The European Commission, which had declared that its highest priority was ‘equality for all’, adopted a new approach to Roma integration in 2020 that broadened the scope of intervention to Roma equality, inclusion, and participation. The Commission proposed a new EU Roma Strategic Framework to Member States, surpassing the previous socio-economic approach and inclusive growth aspects. The paradigm shift was obvious not only by the introduction of the equality element but also by the proposal of common European headline targets and EU-level indicators. Nonetheless, Member States’ ambition to commit to common achievable targets was moderate. While Member States agreed to adopt national Roma strategic frameworks, many of them opted for national targets and indicators instead of the common European ones. The European Commission has already evaluated the national strategies and found that Member States’ action until 2030 will primarily focus on education and the improvement of the situation of Roma children and pupils.