Tag: Roma

European Commissioner for Education and Culture Androulla Vassiliou has sharply criticised the authorities in the Slovak city of Košice for constructing a wall to segregate the city's Roma community.

The migration of Roma to Germany has prompted one German economist to urge the EU to amend its Free Movement Directive ahead of a January 2014 deadline for lifting labour restrictions on Bulgarian and Romanian nationals.

Marking International Roma Day, the European Commission on Monday (8 April) urged member countries to ensure that NGOs representing Roma are involved in the planning and use of EU funds for integration into society.

Blaming Roma for everything from petty crime to trash on the streets, thousands of supporters of Hungary's far-right opposition Jobbik party rallied in the eastern city of Miskolc yesterday (17 October).

France and Romania have signed a deal on the voluntary repatriation of Roma to Romania, with both sides saying that “time” and “patience” were needed to solve Roma migration problems.

French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault says his country will request “in the following days” holding a European Council meeting to make decisions “at the European level” on the Roma - many of them from Romania and Bulgaria - who settle in illegal camps in France and other countries.

Rights groups have accused France’s Socialist leaders of abandoning electoral promises by continuing the arbitrary expulsions of Eastern European Roma that were begun under former President Nicolas Sarkozy.

The European Commission has scolded EU states for not delivering on their commitment to implement national strategies for actively integrating Roma communities into society.

France continues to target and evict Roma EU citizens, despite assurances from the European Commission last August that the country had successfully complied with European law, according to the non-governmental organisation Human Rights Watch.

Recent data protection breaches involving Apple and Sony show that "the protection of personal data doesn't work properly," says the EU commissioner in charge of justice and fundamental rights Viviane Reding. In a wide-ranging interview with EurActiv, she also discusses other issues such as EU communications, media funding, Roma discrimination and gender quotas.

A spike in measles cases across Europe led by France – caused by the difficulty of innoculating migrant, religious and complacent communities – has triggered moves to co-ordinate vaccination across the continent.

Since Europe has more employment and social problems now than before the crisis, more social inclusion measures need to be supported by the European Social Fund (ESF), which should be given competences on financial engineering, said László Andor, EU commissioner for employment, social affairs and inclusion, in an exclusive interview with EurActiv Slovakia.

Roma families who agree to leave camps in Italy and return to their native Romania can benefit from €15,000 paid mostly as a monthly instalment to rehabilitate their houses. EurActiv Romania reports.

Looking beyond the 2010 European Year for combating poverty and social exclusion, Employment and Social Policy Commissioner László Andor says the EU and its member states must keep working to find new and more effective ways to improve the lives of the most disadvantaged groups. He spoke to EurActiv in an exclusive interview.

France produced new arguments yesterday (8 December) to support its position that Romania and Bulgaria are not ready to the join Europe's visa-free Schengen travel zone, citing poor border and immigration controls.

In the first nine months of the year, France repatriated 6,562 Romanians and 910 Bulgarians, according to French Immigration Minister Eric Besson, who has stopped referring to them as Roma. EurActiv Romania reports.

French President Nicolas Sakozy hosted a trilateral summit with Germany and Russia to prepare for his country's G20 presidency, finding temporary refuge in world affairs as more than a million people took to the streets of France over planned reform of the pension system.

As it appears that France will miss the 15 October deadline given by the European Commission to prove the legality of its Roma expulsions policy, the EU executive will make its case "stronger" against Paris, EU officials told EurActiv.

Following France's controversial expulsions of illegal Roma migrants, most of whom were EU nationals of Romanian and Bulgarian origin, Paris has signalled its opposition to lifting visa requirements for Bosnian and Albanian citizens. EurActiv.fr contributed to this article.

The European External Action Service (EEAS) can be set up only if the European Parliament approves the staff and financial legal base based on the presence of at least 60% "Community personnel" in the new diplomatic corps, German MEP Elmar Brok (European People's Party) told EurActiv in an interview.

Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding, who was caught in a bitter row with Paris last week over the French government's Roma expulsions, said the European Commission will start a legal procedure against France and several other EU countries for failing to transpose into national law a 2004 directive on the free movement of persons.

Recent tensions between France, the European Commission and the European Parliament over the Roma expulsions carried out by the French authorities this summer are likely to mar today's EU summit, which was supposed to discuss the Union's common foreign policy.

EU European affairs ministers yesterday (13 September) decided to extend monitoring on Romania and Bulgaria, which was put in place to tackle their poorly functioning judicial systems and inability to curb corruption. France said the majority of countries are opposed to Bucharest and Sofia's accession to Schengen until the monitoring has been lifted.