Fundación Secretariado Gitano

For a European Year of Youth that includes young Roma people [editar]

• International

In September this year, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, announced the intention to make 2022 the European Year of Youth, " a year dedicated to empowering those who have dedicated so much to others”.

The overall objective of the European Year of Youth shall be to boost the efforts of the Union, the Member States, regional and local authorities to honour, support and engage with youth in a post-pandemic perspective, through actions to improve and renew opportunities to counteract the negative impact of the pandemic, to enhance youth participation (especially for those with fewer opportunities) and to encourage EU policies to support their development at all levels.

The FSG has submitted its comments to the Commission's initiative on the European Year of Youth (here, in Spanish), with the aim of ensuring that the needs of the Roma community are taken into account and that the voice of its young people is heard. Among other ideas, we have emphasised the relevance of including Roma youth in the events of the European Year of Youth, due to the high representation of young people in the Roma population (in Spain, 66% of the Roma population is under 30 years old), the higher levels of vulnerability to which they are subjected (with lower levels of education and unemployment), but especially to ensure the high value in terms of diversity that their contribution may represent. We believe that, in order to achieve a truly rich and inclusive objective in the European Year of Youth, the participation of all the diverse voices that make up Europe's heterogeneous youth, including Roma youth, must be explicitly and proactively promoted, not simply by stating the importance of participation, but by creating the tools and facilitating the means to promote diverse and meaningful participation.

Finally, we would like to see a greater emphasis in the Decision on the European Year of Youth on the educational issue related to Roma youth, who in general obtain lower educational results, including higher school dropout rates, school failure and even bullying.

Next step in the European Year of Youth will be the appointment of the National Coordinators of the year, who will coordinate the implementation of the activities in each country.

We would like to take this opportunity to share the video of our campaign #BreadForTomorrow, in which we demanded working opportunities for young Roma.

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