Fundación Secretariado Gitano

Joint statement on the approval of Resolution by the European Parliament urging the European Commission to launch an EU action plan to eradicate Roma settlements by 2030 [editar]

• Housing
• International

Through this vote, the European Parliament (EP) has taken an important step forward towards improving the living conditions of thousands of Roma experiencing severe social exclusion and poverty in such informal and segregated settlements in the EU.

FSG and FEANTSA particularly welcome the mandate given to the European Commission to launch a European Action Plan for the eradication of Roma settlements by 2030 that would provide Member States with concrete guidelines and targets too boost, with existing financial tools, actions for supporting people to exit situations of deep marginalisation, as formulated under Article 28 of the EP resolution:

(Art. 28) Urges the Commission to step up its efforts to gradually eradicate marginalised Roma settlements across the EU by launching an EU action plan to eradicate Roma settlements by 2030, with the aim of reinforcing the use of existing policy and financial instruments; emphasises that this EU action plan should provide guidelines, establish priorities and concrete targets and envisage a component of transnational cooperation and exchange of positive practices between Member States;

From FEANTSA and FSG, "we are very satisfied by the fact that the EP has incorporated the elaboration of this European Action Plan in this Resolution, as it has been a proposal of our two organisations.

The EU and its Member States must increase their efforts towards preventing and combating homelessness and housing exclusion of all EU citizens, including Roma living in marginalised communities. We therefore call on the Commission and the Member States to take note of the proposals formulated under the Resolution voted by the EP and to commit towards a European approach on improving housing conditions for Roma living in settlement".

FEANTSA and FSG strongly believe that improving the situation of Roma living in settlements should be urgently addressed by adopting an EU Action Plan led by the EC aiming to remove existing segregated settlements where many Roma live, as the way to guarantee the right to a dignified house and overall, to improve the living conditions, including having an inclusive environment, of the most marginalised communities in our Union. We would like to remind the Commission and  ember States that improving housing for Roma remains one of the areas where more investment is needed, given that 61 per cent of Roma continue to experience housing deprivation in Europe.

Furthermore, these organisations underline that any future efforts to transform the newly adopted Resolution into reality should be aligned with and reinforce the new efforts under the current EU strategic framework for Roma equality, inclusion and participation 2020-2030. Any future plans for action should be correlated with the measures proposed under the housing direction within the national Roma strategies in order to ensure that these are complementary and that they reach people in most vulnerable situations. All these policy objectives need to be linked with existing financial tools such as those offered by the EU Cohesion Funds of the new programming period 2021-2027, notably the European Regional Development Fund and also European Social Fund Plus, together with EU Next Generation funds

FSG and FEANTSA take this opportunity to call on the European Council and the European Commission to further support the resolution on the situation of Roma living in settlements and to work towards the realisation of the measures formulated in the initiative.

FSG and FEANTSA hope this EP Resolution will mean a turning point for eradicating segregated settlements where too many Roma still live in today across the EU.

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