Europarlementariërs roepen op tot verbetering leefomstandigheden Roma-zigeuners (en)

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - MEPs have tried to raise awareness about the plight of Europe's 12-15 million Roma with a resolution calling on member states to do more to help this ethnic minority.

The resolution notes that Roma in Europe "are suffering racial discrimination and in many cases are subject to severe structural discrimination, poverty and social exclusion".

It also highlights the every-day difficulties faced by Roma such as racist attacks, hate speech, unlawful evictions and police harassment.

Sterilisation of women

Other practices include the sterilisation of Roma women without their consent and segregated education for Roma children.

Hungarian Liberal MEP Viktoria Mohacsi, one of only two Roma deputies in the Brussels assembly, said the adoption of the resolution is a "very important" step.

"I am particularly concerned about the fact that Romani children are declared mentally disabled and segregated into separate schools", said Mrs Mohacsi.

"In my experience, generally 60% of children who are declared mentally disabled in the European Union happen to be Roma".

The non-binding resolution calls on the EU and member states to recognise the Roma as a European minority - currently countries such as Greece, Denmark and Italy do not - and says future member states such as Croatia and Turkey should do so as well.

It also says that the atrocities committed against the Roma by the Nazis should be formally recognised and asks for the removal of the pig farm situated at the site of a former concentration camp to be removed.

Livia Jaroka, also Roma, and a centre-right MEP from Hungary, said "Roma remain to date the subject of powerful exclusionary forces.

"Actions to combat these phenomena are still fledging", said Mrs Jaroka, the initiator of the resolution.

Roma are thought to be Europe's largest minority having made their way to this Continent from India around 1,000 years ago.

Poverty

However, precise demographic figures are not available "due in large part to the stigma associated with the Romani identity ... and the refusal of many governments to include Roma as a legitimate category for census purposes" says a European Commission report on Roma.

Roma also continue to live in abject poverty in several of the new member states including in Slovakia and the Czech Republic.

A UN committee ruled recently that policies in Slovakia kept Roma in sub-standard slum-like housing.

But "old" member states do not fare much better. The European Roma Rights Centre website notes that there have been a "number of recent violent and abusive actions committed against Roma by public authorities and others in Greece, Italy ... Spain and Sweden".