04/05/2020
FSG Internacional
It is urgent to mobilise available European funds, including European Structural and Investment Funds, to prevent, avoid and alleviate the negative impact of the current crisis on the most vulnerable groups, such as the Roma population. The current Coronavirus outbreak (COVID-19) is already placing broad layers of the Spanish and European Roma population in a serious situation of vulnerability, helplessness and lack of protection of their fundamental rights. In this emergency context, it is urgent to mobilise all the political and financial tools to put in place measures that contribute to prevent, avoid and alleviate the negative impact of this health, economic and social crisis on those persons most affected by poverty, social exclusion and marginalisation, as it is the case of many Roma people across the European Union.
As stressed by the different measures adopted by the European Commission and other European institutions to provide a coordinated response to this crisis at European level and counter its impact (in particular the Coronavirus Response Investment Initiative I and II), the mobilisation of EU budget is crucial. One of the most important measures concerns the European Structural and Investment Funds (ESI Funds) (including the European Social Fund (ESF) and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), which have benefitted so much the Roma population throughout Europe), proposing measures to make these funds more flexible and to speed up their management. Likewise, Member States can access the European Union Solidarity Fund (EUSF), the scope of which has been extended to cover the provision of assistance to the population and actions to contain the spread of the virus. The Fund for European Aid to the Most Deprived (FEAD), which complements the ESF by providing food and/or basic material assistance to the most deprived, is another relevant financial instrument.
Aware of the role that ESI Funds can play in this crisis, the EURoma Network (European Network on Roma Inclusion under ESI Funds), which is coordinated by the FSG as Technical Secretariat, is gathering information among its partners (public authorities responsible for Roma policies and those responsible for ESI Funds from 15 countries) on how they are using or are planning to use these funds to counter the negative impact of this crisis on Roma people, notably on the most excluded ones, taking advantage of the flexibility offered by the measures adopted by the European institutions. For more information on the Network and its work, please check EURoma website (available in English and Spanish)
FSG international department is also closely monitoring the initiatives adopted by European and international organisations in relation to the Covid-19 outbreak. It is also sharing with European institutions the work that the Foundation is undertaking in Spain to respond to this crisis and in particular the political proposals addressed to Spanish national, regional and local authorities so that they are taken as reference.
