- “Thank you, thank you indeed also for the question. Of course we are very much aware of the results of the CON's committee and the recommendations. What I can, well maybe first one thing to, to, to, I'm sure you will know, you said the Commission selecting the projects. It's not the Commission who selects the projects. We work on the shared management. We negotiate priorities, measures under which the Member State itself selects its projects. And of course there we have influence on negotiating those measures and priorities and also projects are being evaluated. We set indicators, so this is all in the program included for MRC for Roma minority inclusion projects just like for any other part of the program. I think what I would like to answer to your question is that we try to anticipate already quite a lot of those comments. What I mentioned in the cooperation which we had with the World Bank on the CURIE initiative, as a result of that cooperation where we work closely with the experts from the World Bank in a limited number of settlements, we clearly could see for example one of the clear outcomes is these integrated calls. You do not solve Roma inclusion by only building indeed a road or by only building a school. It's about the combination and the coherence of measures and this is what we try to do with these integrated calls. They are running right now. I think it's a bit too early to judge already the results of this but this is clearly one way where we have been trying to learn the lessons from the past and trying to improve it. But once again it's a harsh reality. I think we have to be happy and satisfied with relatively small steps. We will not change the world in five, six years.”
Engagement of Romani communities in Europe · EU policy on integration and ethnic, racial and religious discrimination · Cohesion and rural funding
- “Yeah thank you very much for your comment. I might just say first also that when we talk about the Roma in the Eastern Europe we talk about people which are here in the continent more than five hundred years in some cases actually we are present in the continent for more than eight hundred years. So we are practically talking about almost one thousand year of exclusion which cannot be solved in just a couple of years or one budgeting programming period. So we still call and that's more reflection to the previous question we we still call for specific targeted measures for for for measures that actually target the Roma community specifically because this is something which is like complementary we have to make sure that people are actually getting on the kind of same level as the majority society so that we will be able to go together. Our organization also have members in France and in the in the Western Europe where we are working with the migrant Roma communities because I think that it's also a specific category. It's we talk about the migrant of from the Eastern Europe to the Western western countries like like Spain France also Belgium but we also talk about the population which are the travelers. Here I know that there are also some specific programs and and there are also demands by this community so we are all we are we are talking about mediators which can which can actually travel with the community. So we are asking about allocating sites specific sites where the the the the Roma would have access to the scholarization and what I also know very often those Roma they are not traveling in a big perimeter so they are able to send the children to school if the school is open to receive these children if the municipality will allow to have a receiving address a mailing address where they would receive information about several changes so through the civil society. And in the same time I also agree the contradiction we say a lot of support to Roma it's happening through the civil society but I think that through the civil society we have to find the systemic and strategic actions that can be taken by the local institution by municipalities and by other actors which can they they play this important role of mediating the access of Roma Sinti and travelers to their to the services.”
Engagement of Romani communities in Europe · EU policy on integration and ethnic, racial and religious discrimination · Cohesion and rural funding
- “Thank you. Thank you very much for your question and for the question on rule of law which extends of course the scope which does not affect only the Roma inclusion. And of course for us the rule of law is an important element for allocating the funds and for absorbing the funds. So for sure we will look into this. It's not our DG which is responsible for this but we certainly will look into that the right conditions are set for also for the judiciary system, that beneficiaries can complain about funding. This is the kind of system which we look at. And of course the rule of law is a broader topic for which we are not directly responsible but certainly it's a conditionality which certainly is broadly monitored within the Commission and it could have eventually also an effect on the EU funds of course as we see in other Member States.”
EU Supervision of the Rule of Law · Cohesion and rural funding · Conditions to access EU budget
- “Well thank you thank you once again for having the opportunity to exchange the discussion and exchange different views. Yes I only would like to repeat that this is a long term process and you said it as well it's not something which will change overnight and I think building trust exactly what you said if trust is broken it's not being built up in a short period. What we try to do at least from the side of the commission is first of all not making the money only available but considerable amounts and secure also that this money will remain available for Roma inclusion but also look that this money is efficiently and effectively spent. So once again the remark that it's a black hole I would not totally not agree and certainly with the role of the plenipotentiary which is now a more central coordinating role for the allocation of the funds to Roma inclusion I would say it's an important step and we hope that this will also show results and bear fruit at short notice. And besides that what we have been trying to do from our side learn the lessons from previous program periods what can be done better and like the integrated course I mentioned already to have a more clearer and simpler rules and guidance to allocate the projects to set up local and development teams in sixty municipalities with Roma settlements to build their distrust to help them with the developing projects and we can see already the first results but we have to be a little bit patient to see the impact on longer term thank you.”
Engagement of Romani communities in Europe · EU policy on integration and ethnic, racial and religious discrimination · Cohesion and rural funding
- “Well, I, yes Mister Wimmers, I think I should react. Well, I take distance from your remark that the money disappears in the black hole. I think that's a total exaggeration which I do not accept. The money which has been allocated is being planned via Roma integrated strategies. The money is being spent to a lot of useful projects, to a lot of good projects where we build schools, where we build kindergartens, where we have improved the sewage system in several settlements. Where I agree with you is that this is a slow process. I think it's not that in one program period we can have a fully integrated inclusion of the Roma minority in Slovakia. This is a long-term process which requires a lot of steps, small steps forward. Certainly, I think we should be looking for those good examples and trying to promote them even further. But to say that the money disappears in a black hole, I think is really not a correct reflection. Thank you.”
Engagement of Romani communities in Europe · EU policy on integration and ethnic, racial and religious discrimination · Cohesion and rural funding
- “Thank you Chair, and thank you for inviting us for this exchange on Roma and Slovakia. I would like to introduce a bit our work. Slovakia is one of the largest Roma communities in the EU, around half a million people, which represent ten percent of the total population in Slovakia. Despite targeted policies, many still face problems of exclusion in housing, education, employment, and health. EU Cohesion Policy has during several periods already been instrumental to improve the situation of the Roma minority. The European Commission supports Slovakia in funding activities from two main sources. First of all, the European Regional Development Fund, for which we indeed do Regio work, and the European Social Fund ESF Plus, for which our colleagues in DG Employment are responsible. The allocation in the program period 2014-2020 was four hundred million euro for Roma inclusion. ERDF managed mainly soft measures like education, employment, social services, capacity building. ERDF supported more the hard infrastructure like housing, kindergartens, water and sewage systems. The system was not optimal due to many bottlenecks such as lack of administrative capacity both at local and national level, fragmented calls, and long public procurement processes. The absorption of the funds was rather slow, especially under the ERDF part, and this often discouraged actors, local actors, to take part in the EU funding. From the side of the Commission, we have been trying to look at what we could improve and we have been working closely with the World Bank under the so-called Catching Up Regions initiative, where the World Bank experts helped lagging regions to improve the use of funds, including also social inclusion of Roma minorities. The best practices from that experience from the CURIE initiative we've introduced to be included in the new program period for 2021-2027. For example, we improved the implementation structure where the planning potential is now overall responsible for the management of the funds linked to Roma, both also at national and local level. We consolidated the capacity both at national and local level. We enabled integrated calls, so instead of separate sector-related calls, we had integrated calls which bring more stability and efficiency in planning. On top of that, we allowed one hundred percent financing provided to projects linked to the Roma minority, where eighty-five percent comes from the EU and fifteen percent from the national level. The budget was also increased. We are talking now about almost one billion euros available for Roma integration in Slovakia, of which almost half of that is directly managed by the plenipotentiary. There are many projects which are being supported, but I don't want to go into detail. Maybe we'll highlight one which is an important project: the National Project Development Teams, which have been set up in sixty municipalities with the largest Roma concentration, where budget was made available for concrete advice at local level for advisory and organization activities in the area of employment, education, youth and parenting, housing, social and cultural, and anti-discrimination. What can we say? What we have learned until now: we can see that the contracting rates and payment rates have increased compared to the previous program period, but we're certainly not there yet. There's still a lot of work to be done. The lessons which we can learn until now are that, first of all, strong and stable administrative capacity is essential for the management of these projects. Secondly, the challenges the Roma minority is confronted with are not one-dimensional; they require an integrated approach. That's why we have launched now also integrated calls where both funds, ERDF and ESF Plus, are combined. We have helped the Slovak authorities to introduce clearer and simpler rules and give them more guidance. Lastly, more speaking broadly, what we see for Slovakia in broader terms is a need for a clear long-term vision for how the EU funds are invested. This does not only apply to the Roma minority but also to many other areas and one that goes throughout individual program periods. Thank you very much.”
Engagement of Romani communities in Europe · EU policy on integration and ethnic, racial and religious discrimination · Cohesion and rural funding