About: Roma Archives

The European Union said Thursday (26 May) it has launched a probe into charges that Hungary extensively discriminates against Roma children in the country's schools.

Czech anti-racism activists said Tuesday (17 May) they had asked the EU to halt subsidies to a pig farm built on the site of a former concentration camp where hundreds of Roma prisoners died during World War II.

While the EU may think that remaining silent on the more challenging issues of the visa liberalisation deal might be a price worth paying for dealing with the refugee crisis, it reflects the bloc’s desperation, writes Igor Merheim-Eyre.

Soon, the European Roma Institute for Arts and Culture will be established in a major European city yet to be revealed. It’s time to look to us for guidance, solutions, and inspiration, writes Ethel Brooks.

European institutions should continue to put pressure on EU member states to ensure that national strategies to fight Roma discrimination are actually implemented on the ground, write Michaël Privot, Ruus Dijksterhuis and Karolina Mirga.

For generations, they were owned by the rich and powerful, who bought and sold them as chattel.

"I know what it means to be discriminated (against)... and when I hear anti-Semitic, anti-Islamic, and xenophobic speech, it’s like a bell ringing, telling people 'Please be worried'," Vytenis Andriukaitis told EURACTIV in an exclusive interview.

“The European model is dead,” Jean-Michel de Waele told EURACTIV in an exclusive interview. Our future model should be based on a core of six or seven countries that are capable of real political union.

France continued to evict thousands of Roma in 2015, and cut its re-housing efforts, as demand for housing soared due to the refugee crisis. Hostility to the minority in France is among the highest in Europe. EURACTIV France reports. 

Roma are being evicted from their homes across the European Union in systematic forced evictions. What is needed is the political will to use EU anti-discrimination laws to sanction member states guilty of leaving Roma homeless. 

Justice Commissioner V?ra Jourová said on Thursday (1 October) that member states have the obligation to criminalise hate speech and make sure the law is enforced.

Bulgaria's prime minister appealed for calm today (16 June) following several days of violence and ethnic tensions involving the EU country's 10 percent Roma minority.

All member states align their anti-discrimination legislation with the EU Race Equality Directive. However, local and central institutions do not consistently enforce it, argue Margareta Matache and Arlen Fuller.

A survey by broadcaster SVT shows that the number of EU migrants begging in Sweden has doubled in one year, to 4,000, primarily from Bulgaria and Romania. This is in spite of negotiations on migrants Sweden initiated with Romania last year.

Roma children in the Czech Republic are consistently discriminated against in schools due to the Czech government’s longstanding failure to address prejudices within the society, says Salil Shetty, the Secretary General of Amnesty International, in an exclusive interview with EURACTIV Czech Republic.

The Czech Republic systematically discriminates against Roma students, according to Amnesty International. EURACTIV Czech Republic reports.

On International Roma Day, Caritas Europa calls on the European Union to promote the full inclusion of Roma people across Europe, writes Shannon Pfohman. 

Some EU countries recognize the Roma as a national minority. However, they still remain racially discriminated against in education, employment, housing, and other societal domains, writes Martin Demirovski.

An important part of the fight against anti-Gypsyism is raising awareness of the history of past persecution of Roma minorities in Europe, writes Rokhaya Diallo.

The Hungarian far-right leader Gabor Vona, founder of a since-disbanded paramilitary group who made a career vilifying the Roma, has cleaned up his previously hardline image.

There is no winter break in France's shanty towns, where 300 Roma are expelled every week. In 2014, France evicted four out of five slum-dwellers; a higher proportion than in any other European country. EURACTIV France reports. 

SPECIAL REPORT: Three civil society organisations from Slovakia, Greece, and the Czech Republic won the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) civil society prize Thursday (16 October) for outstanding achievements in integrating Roma at the local level.