COMMISSIONER LÁSZLÓ ANDOR PARTICIPATES IN LAUNCH OF NEW ESF NETWORK LED BY SPAIN TO PROMOTE THE USE OF EU STRUCTURAL FUNDS FOR ROMA INCLUSION [editar]

The launch event of the network "Reinforcing policy learning for Roma inclusion", which took place on 28 May in Brussels, gathered the heads of ESF Managing Authorities and the Roma National Contact Points of eight EU member states.

• EU Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion László Andor highlighted that political commitment is needed at all levels in order to ensure best possible results in the social inclusion of the Roma population at the launch event of the Network Reinforcing Policy Learning for Roma Inclusion, in Brussels, on 28 May. He underlined the important role that this new network can play in turning political commitment into effective investments for interventions on the ground. 
• The project is led by the Spanish ESF Managing Authority, and the Fundación Secretariado Gitano acts as its Technical Secretariat.
• Head of Spanish ESF Managing Authority, Olga Robles Molina, pointed out the need to enhance through this new network the progress made by the EURoma network at technical level through decisions at political level.

The launch event of the new European Social Fund (ESF) Network Reinforcing Policy Learning for Roma Inclusion took place on 28 May, in Brussels. The launch event counted on the presence of European Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion László Andor, and the heads of the ESF Managing Authorities and National Contact Points for Roma inclusion policies of eight EU Member States, among them Spain, which promotes and leads this network.

In his intervention, the Commissioner highlighted the advances made within the framework of the EURoma network and emphasised the role of the Structural Funds, especially the ESF, as an essential tool for social cohesion and in achieving Europe´s common objectives on employment, education and social inclusion, as provided in the Europe 2020 Strategy.

Mr Andor stressed that the importance of the work of this learning network goes well beyond the seemingly technical character of best practice exchange. Its work will help to overcome the paradox between the need to achieve progress, and the weak use of EU resources for Roma inclusion in many Member States. This Network thus offers an opportunity to better design, implement and monitor effective interventions.

Furthermore, László Andor stated that Member States are primarily responsible for designing and implementing sustainable Roma Integration policies, but underlined that EU also has an important role to play and adds value in three key areas: in the coordination of a European level policy framework to enhance the efficiency of the National Roma Integration Strategies, by providing EU funding to be mobilised alongside national budgets to translate strategies into real socio-economic integration, and in enforcing the implementation of relevant EU anti-discrimination legislation to combat Roma exclusion.

In her opening remarks, the Head of Spanish ESF Managing Authority, Olga Robles Molina, underlined the key moment in which we find ourselves, as we are facing a new programming period and have to convert opportunities into national policy decisions, reflected within the Partnership Agreements and Operational Programmes, in order to enable the development of more inclusive actions under EU funds for the Roma population.

“If in 2007, at the beginning of the current programming period, our challenge was how to include the Roma population into the Operational Programmes, our challenge in 2013 has to be how we can achieve real impact through Structural Funds on the living conditions of the Roma population in the next programming period”, said Olga Robles.

Participants in the meeting agreed that significant progress has taken place since 2000, when only one Member State made a specific reference to the inclusion of the Roma population, compared to 2007, but joint efforts are still needed in order to improve the impact of Structural Funds for Roma inclusion. There was a general consensus that the changes related to the next programming period should be in line with promoting an integrated approach in the projects, combining EU funds, improving horizontal and vertical coordination mechanisms and a major involvement of the local administration and the Roma community itself to achieve effective implementation.

The general objective of this new Network is that, in the next programming period of the Structural Funds (2014-2020), the Operational Programmes of the ESF should be more inclusive of the Roma population, the largest ethnic minority of the continent but also the one experiencing the greatest degree of exclusion, by incorporating lessons learnt during the current programming period.

This network is led by the Spanish ESF Managing Authority, and the FSG acts as its Technical Secretariat. 

For additional information on the activities of the network, please contact the Technical Secretariat at the following email address: ESFRomaInclusionNetwork@gitanos.org. Tel. +34 91 422 09 68.