Promoting the usa of ESI Funds for Roma inclusion

Slovakia

, the

Integrated Regional OP

will be realised without territorial allocation.

Municipalities identified in the ‘Atlas of Roma Communities’ are eligible under the OP.

Spain

, measures related to Roma population within ERDF will be implemented, through

integrated urban strategies, in the context of a national OP (

Sustainable Growth OP

) and

two regional OPs (

Madrid OP

and

Murcia OP

). In addition, within the ERDF it is compulsory

to invest between 25% and 35% of overall budget in Thematic Objective 9.

Although this analysis mainly focuses on ESF and ERDF OPs, a mention should be

made to the

Youth Employment Initiative (YEI)

, an instrument with a high potential

to contribute to changing the situation of unemployed Roma youngsters. While many

of the OPs of relevance for Roma inclusion also foresee the use of YEI funds, no

information is available on interventions targeting specifically Roma. This could

indicate that Roma youngsters are not being specifically considered in the Plans and

OPs that Member States are adopting to implement the Youth Employment Initiative

at national level, assuming that they will benefit from the measures simply because

they are young and they are unemployed.

However, it is also worth stressing that in some countries, although no specific

measures for Roma youngsters are foreseen, a number of projects targeting them

are approved.

Within the

Spanish

Youth Employment OP

, two projects targeting Roma that are neither

unemployed nor integrated in the educative or training systems will be funded. Firstly, the

‘Integrated insertion pathways for Roma youth-Acceder’ project aims to promote, through

integrated and personalised insertion pathways, the incorporation of these young Roma into

the labour market or in educative or training processes. Secondly, the ‘Initiative to improve

the employability of the Roma youth-Learning by doing’ expects to increase the employability,

the professional, basic and cross-cut competences and the equal opportunities in the access

to the labour market for these young Roma through the acquisition of knowledge and skills,

the training in competences and working habits on the workplace.

This mapping does not consider information on funding sources other than ESF and

ERDF and other instruments

that countriesmay use for funding projects related to Roma

inclusion –including the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD)

and the European Territorial Cooperation programmes-, in which Roma inclusion is

generally addressed to a lesser extent and through a less targeted approach. However,

we are aware that, some countries are using these funding sources and instruments

in the 2014-2020 programming period (e.g. the EAFRD-funded

Rural Development

OPs

in Hungary and Romania).