Fundación Secretariado Gitano

The FSG, together with a coalition of European organisations, is calling for a common strategy on the social inclusion of the Roma in Europe[editar]

• The city of Cordoba hosts this second Summit under the Spanish Presidency of the EU. The first Summit was held in Brussels in September 2008.
• The Minister of Health and Social Policy, Trinidad Jimenez, together with the Vice President of the European Commission, Viviane Reding, among others, will be taking part in the opening ceremony.
• Two weeks ago, the European Parliament adopted a resolution in which the European Commission expressed its "deep concern" about the lack of progress.

Madrid, 5 April 2010 .- On Thursday, 8th April, coinciding with the celebration of the International Roma Day, the inauguration of the 2nd European Roma Summit will take place in Cordoba. A high-level event organised by the European Commission and the Spanish Ministry of Health and Social Policy, within the framework of the activities sponsored by the Spanish EU presidency.

On occasion of this Summit, the Fundación Secretariado Gitano (FSG) has issued an institutional statement in which it "highly values this second Summit" but also demands "specific steps forward compared to the previous summit to lay the foundations for the development of a European Strategy for the Social Inclusion of the Roma with a view to addressing, in a decisive manner, the plight of poverty, social exclusion, discrimination and racism suffered by the Roma community in Europe".

This demand is primarily aimed at the European Commission, as the institution that should play a leading role in EU policies, and at Member States, which are ultimately responsible for social inclusion measures affecting the Roma. "Today, belonging to the Roma community -in Spain, but also in any other European country- is a major factor linked to rejection and social exclusion", stated the FSG in its Statement before the Summit.

Other European NGOs, such as those grouped in the European Roma Policy Coalition (ERPC), of which FSG is a member, have also demanded a joint strategy and more effective actions at European level. The said Coalition has also insisted, in a joint Statement, on the urgent and unequivocal representation by the European Parliament to the Commission to address this issue with a "comprehensive approach at European level."

This demand by the European Parliament was included in its resolution dated 25th March   and expressed "its deep concern that the Commission had not yet responded to its request, dated 31 January 2008, to prepare a European Roma strategy in collaboration with Member States in order to forward co-ordination and to promote efforts to improve the situation of the Roma."

The FSG at the Summit

The FSG, which also participated in the First European Roma Summit in Brussels in September 2008, will be present at the Second Summit in Cordoba through the presence by its Director, Isidro Rodriguez, on the evening of the 8th during the round table discussion titled: "Implementing the principles of the European Platform for Roma Inclusion."

The FSG will also attend the summit as a member organisation of the State Council of the Roma, as an entity that holds the Technical Secretariat of the EURoma Network (European Network on Social Inclusion and Roma under the Structural Funds) and as an NGO that belongs to the European Roma Policy Coalition (ERPC) together with other organisations such as Amnesty International, ERRC, ENAR, OSI, REF or ERIO.

Contacts

•  Fundación Secretariado Gitano. Press Relations Department. Benjamín Cabaleiro (benjamin.cabaleiro@gitanos.org), Pilar Calón (pilar.calon@gitanos.org), Susana Jiménez (susana.jimenez@gitanos.org). (91 422 09 60 /8)
• European Roma Policy Coalition (ERPC). Martin Demirovski, ERPC Co-ordinator (martin.demirovski@osi-eu.org)  (+32 476 634 157). Belén Sánchez-Rubio, ERPC-FSG Representative (Spain) (belen.sanchez-rubio@gitanos.org) (91 422 09 60 /8).
• Contacts of other organisations of the European Roma Policy Coalition: Amnisty International, Nicolas Beger, executive director +32 499 27 48 90 and David Diaz-Jogeix, deputy director Programmes of Europe and Central Asia. International Secretariat (+44 78 3164 0098); Roma Education Fund, Tobias Linden, director (+36 30 565 7098); ENAR, European Network against Racism, Sophie Kammerer (+32 474 058 215).

 

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