High level conference on Roma inclusion on the ground - The ROMACT experience
Brussels, 2 & 3 October 2014
Statement by Herwig van Staa, President of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities
Dear Commissioners,
Dear Member of Parliament,
Dear Minister,
Dear local elected officials and representatives of civil society,
Dear participants,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
On behalf of the Congress of local and regional authorities, I want to congratulate you for this very successful event, the fruitful debates and the promising prospects of the ROMACT Programme after 1 year of implementation.
I would like to use this opportunity to underline three key issues:
1. The importance of the local level in achieving integration of Roma;
2. The outcomes of ROMACT that we should learn of and consider for future initiatives
3. And the Congress’ willingness to strengthen the connections between ROMACT, ROMED and the European Alliance of Cities and Regions for Roma Inclusion
Policy measures at local and regional level are decisive for bringing about real improvement in the social inclusion of Roma, across the key areas of education, housing, employment and health. As president of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities, I am convinced that it is crucial to approach the topic of Roma inclusion by being responsive to local needs, providing concrete support and assistance for efforts at local and regional level.
One key concept to be aware of is political will. Without political will all efforts will fail and our objectives will not be realised. The willingness and deliberateness of local elected officials is absolutely crucial to the integration of Roma.
This is very much in line with the imperatives of the Strasbourg Declaration adopted in 2010. Much too often local governments feel sceptical about the chances to achieve progress in this area, and this is mainly due to the fact that they do not see how it can be achieved. Unfortunately they feel, and too often rightly so, left alone to respond to complex questions, for which they lack the necessary expertise.
2. As far as the lessons we have learned by the implementation of the ROMACT programme, the gained experience that was the subject of discussion of our Conference is a well-received contribution to the goal we are all committed to: improving Roma inclusion in our cities and regions as well as making sure they are treated as full-fledged citizens. I think there is a lot to learn from the innovative approach and actions of ROMACT. In including Roma communities while involving local elected officials and staff, in giving them a role in local policy planning and hearing their voice in countering well-known problems, ROMACT is aiming to achieve several goals at once. It is not only contributing to making sure that Roma needs are fully taken into account in local action plans, but it also contributes to building a relationship of confidence between Roma communities and municipal stakeholders, and thus to change mentalities and combat stereotypes. ROMACT thus starts to prepare the ground for future initiatives, be it specifically in the same communities, or somewhere else. The drafting in progress of local action plans taking into account Roma needs, and the increasing willingness of local authorities for tackling Roma inclusion, has to be an encouraging source of motivation for everybody working in this field. It shows that progress is possible. However, we also need to think about how to refine ROMACT’s approach, to improve the concept for future application.
What is also important to mention in this discussion is the complementary link between ROMED and ROMACT. ROMED is building up the capacities of Roma individuals to be able to participate in all aspects of life in their municipality, while ROMACT comes from a different angle, since it tries to train local authority officials to gain competencies in order to include Roma into their political efforts. ROMACT and ROMED therefore work on both necessary sides of the same coin, as both parties are crucial to achieve sustainable inclusion of Roma into mainstream society.
The know-how and experience gained through the ROMACT Programme should also be taken into account amongst European local authorities dealing with Roma issues, as it is knowledge exchange that will favour wide spread improvement of Roma inclusion. Such exchange of know-how and experience already takes place within the European Alliance of Cities and Regions for Roma Inclusion, which was established by the Congress in March 2013 after a consultation process at the Summit of Mayors held in 2010. To this day, the network counts more than 122 cities and regions from 27 different countries. However, such exchange is to be reinforced.
It is for this reason that the Alliance has been supporting the ROMACT programme from its very beginning and it will carry on doing so. The Alliance and ROMACT, as well as ROMED, share common important perspectives and ambitions, which I would like to highlight.
Both projects identify reinforcing political will and building administrative capacities for Roma inclusion at local and regional level as essential to a successful integration of Roma into mainstream society. Since it was launched in October 2013, ROMACT has been making efforts on developing and implementing actions to overcome weak political will of local decision makers and to build up competencies of local administrations to favour Roma inclusion. In that perspective, the Alliance and ROMACT are fully complementary to each other, and the Alliance supports fully to the sharing of those solutions and good practices between municipalities. It would increase the overall effectiveness, if we could manage to disseminate the gained experience of ROMACT through the network of the Alliance for Roma Inclusion.
Indeed, the Alliance aims to favour exchanges of good practices on Roma inclusion among its participating cities and regions and to enable them to speak with one voice, by providing a platform for advocating issues of Roma inclusion at local and regional level. Particular attention is put on the role of Roma women and Roma youth, as well as raising awareness and knowledge about the Roma Pharrajimos or genocide.
It is to be underlined that the efforts of the European Alliance for Roma Inclusion in these fields have been recognized by several EU institutions, starting with the European Parliament. In its resolution on the progress made in the implementation of the National Roma Integration Strategies, adopted in December 2013, the EP recognizes the actions of the Alliance as being “successful on the ground” and “urges the Member States to involve local and regional authorities in reviewing, managing, implementing and monitoring their national strategies”.
3. So, coming to the third issue indicated at the beginning of this speech and considering the important responsibility of local level authorities in promoting effective Roma Inclusion and the key role played by ROMACT, I would like to take this opportunity to clearly state the position of the Congress of local and regional authorities. As I explained, ROMACT, ROMED and the Alliance are all initiatives that not only complement each other, but also would benefit from a stronger mutual link. For example, we should contemplate linking the training of local officials with the work of the ROMED mediators. We consider using the Alliance for disseminating knowledge gained through ROMACT and ROMED.
The Congress would like to start a thinking process of building a joint package for all three initiatives. It would be a pity to lose out on the potential synergies between the three of them. In the interest of discriminated and socially disadvantaged Roma in Europe, we owe it to them to explore every possible avenue for improvement and more effectiveness.
At the end I would like to congratulate the European Commission on the successful organization of this event, which is very important, considering that the new European Commission will assume office on 1 November. I am confident that the support we have received so far from the European Union at large, will continue in this new configuration. As President of the Congress I offer the full cooperation of the Alliance and its platform of committed cities and regions for Roma Inclusion.