25 Amendments of Brando BENIFEI related to 2020/2011(INI)
Amendment 10 #
Draft opinion
Recital A a (new)
Recital A a (new)
A a. whereas the existing EU Framework (EUFW) for National Roma Integration Strategies up to 2020 principally treats Roma in the EU as a homogenous group, shows little sensitivity to local contexts and has a limited capacity for addressing intra-Roma ethnic and socioeconomic diversity and multiple identity and multiple discrimination issues1a; _________________ 1aExpert reports building on forward- looking aspects of the evaluation of the EU Framework for National Roma Integration Strategies, Considering the Diversity of the Roma population in a post-2020 EU-initiative for Roma equality and inclusion, January 2020.
Amendment 12 #
Draft opinion
Recital A b (new)
Recital A b (new)
A b. whereas gender equality and the situation of Roma children and youth are two key areas of intervention for integration and inclusion of Roma that are insufficiently addressed both at the European level and at the level of Member States2a; _________________ 2aExpert reports building on forward- looking aspects of the evaluation of the EU Framework for National Roma Integration Strategies, Considering the Diversity of the Roma population in a post-2020 EU-initiative for Roma equality and inclusion, January 2020, p. 16.
Amendment 13 #
Draft opinion
Recital A c (new)
Recital A c (new)
A c. whereas persisting socioeconomic and health inequalities and multilayered forms of discrimination, including antigypsysm and ageism, put Roma elderly in a particularly vulnerable position;
Amendment 14 #
Draft opinion
Recital A d (new)
Recital A d (new)
A d. whereas combatting structural discrimination of Roma, including the priority areas of education, employment, access to healthcare and housing, and making significant improvement in their socioeconomic status rests on the increase of social and cultural capital in the environments with Roma communities and on long-term, multi-stakeholder approach to Roma integration with active participation of Roma in all stages;
Amendment 15 #
Draft opinion
Recital A e (new)
Recital A e (new)
A e. whereas equality data collection refers to all types of disaggregated data used to assess the comparative situation of specific groups at risk of discrimination, to design public policies that contribute to promoting equality and to assess their implementation, based on evidence and not mere assumptions; whereas the collection of such data (i.e. data revealing ethnic origin or religion) requires exclusive consent of the subjects of data collection and can often be controversial; whereas what is clearly forbidden is racial or ethnic profiling, where people are, without their consent, identified on the basis of third-party perceptions or generalisations based on race, ethnicity, religion or national origin;
Amendment 16 #
Draft opinion
Recital A f (new)
Recital A f (new)
A f. whereas the available data and surveys show much higher rates of unemployment and significantly lower levels of income for the Roma than for the majority population or other disadvantaged ethnic minority groups; whereas the Roma face similar barriers as other ethnic minority groups but more intensively, due to a vicious circle of low education, low qualifications and labour market exclusion;
Amendment 17 #
Draft opinion
Recital A g (new)
Recital A g (new)
A g. whereas individuals belonging to minority groups continue to be discriminated against when they are applying for jobs and even once they are in a job, continue to face unequal treatment; whereas lower wages, lack of career prospects, precarious and difficult working conditions, sticky floor and glass ceiling, harassment, and abusive dismissal, are just some of the manifestations; whereas ethnic minorities are more likely to have less access to employment rights and protection; whereas ethnic origin also seems to matter as regards harassment in the workplace, and to be a major obstacle for career advancement;
Amendment 18 #
Draft opinion
Recital A h (new)
Recital A h (new)
A h. whereas EU-MIDIS II3a finds that only one in four Roma aged 16 years or older reports “employed” or “self- employed” as their main activity at the time of the survey and that Roma women report much lower employment rates than Roma men – 16 % compared with 34 %; whereas, overall, the survey shows paid work rates for Roma aged 20-64 years to be 43 %, which is well below the EU average of 70 % in 2015; whereas the situation of young people is substantially worse: on average, 63 % of Roma aged 16-24 were not employed, in education or training at the time of the survey, compared with the12 % EU average on the NEET rate for the same age group; whereas, for this age group, the results also show a considerable gender gap, with 72 % of young Roma women not employed, in education or training, compared with 55 % of young Roma men and in stark contrast with the rest of the population; _________________ 3aEuropean Commission, EU-MIDIS II: Second European Union Minorities and Discrimination Survey, October 2018.
Amendment 23 #
Draft opinion
Recital B a (new)
Recital B a (new)
B a. whereas EU-MIDIS II4a shows that 80 % of Roma continue to live below the at-risk-of-poverty threshold of their country; that one in 10 people live in housing without electricity; and that every fourth Roma (27 %) and every third Roma child (30 %) live in a household that faced hunger at least once in the previous month; _________________ 4aEuropean Commission, EU-MIDIS II: Second European Union Minorities and Discrimination Survey, October 2018.
Amendment 25 #
Draft opinion
Recital C
Recital C
C. whereas spatial segregation remains one of the key challenges in the area of housing; whereas significant progress made in the field of social housing should be maintained by public support and necessary legislation5a; whereas 43 % of Roma are discriminated against when trying to buy or rent housing and are not sufficiently aware of their rights in terms of equality5 ; _________________ 5European Commission, 2019 Report on National Roma Integration Strategies: Key Conclusions, p. 6. 5aEuropean Commission, 2019 Report on the implementation of national Roma integration strategies, pp. 8-9.
Amendment 27 #
Draft opinion
Recital C a (new)
Recital C a (new)
C a. whereas Roma have been one of the most vulnerable groups in the Covid- 19 pandemic; whereas the economic and social consequences of the health crisis threaten to hit the Roma population the hardest and deepen the existing inequalities in all priority areas of Roma integration; whereas antigypsysm is present also in the form of scapegoating the Roma and ethnicisation of the Coronavirus crisis6a; _________________ 6aEuropean Commission, Overview of the impact of coronavirus measures on the marginalised Roma communities in the EU, May 2020, p. 1.
Amendment 38 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Highlights the fact that Roma are Europe’s largest ethnic minority and one of the minority groups in Europe that faces the highest rates of poverty and social exclusion, continuous discrimination and unequal access to various vital services, which not only accounts for high number of individual human rights violations but also undermines social cohesion, economic ands social potential of the EU; notes with regret that despite measures introduced in the last decade, progress in the areas of housing, employment, education and healthcare has been limited; calls on local authorities and governments to single out as a priority the implementation of the National Roma Integration Strategies (NRIS);
Amendment 52 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 a (new)
Paragraph 1 a (new)
1 a. Calls on the Member States to adopt Council Directive on implementing the principle of equal treatment between persons irrespective of religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation, COM/2008/0426final, 2 July 2008;
Amendment 54 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 b (new)
Paragraph 1 b (new)
1 b. Calls on European Commission to prepare a post-2020 EUFW that will reflect the existing diversity and multiple identities among Roma, integrate the gender equality principle and emphasis on Roma children and youth as key factors of positive change, and uphold an intersectional and multi-stakeholder approach to national integration strategies, where Roma are actively engaged from the preparatory to implementation stages of integration measures;
Amendment 57 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 c (new)
Paragraph 1 c (new)
1 c. Highlights that employment is the main path to social inclusion and ethnic minorities must therefore have the possibility to fully participate in the labour market and the “equal status and equal pay for equal work” principle shall apply to all workers;
Amendment 58 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 d (new)
Paragraph 1 d (new)
1 d. Calls on the Commission to present a Communication on guidelines and standards for discrimination-free recruitment policies for Member States and employers, including recommendations for the adoption of equality plans at company level and in sectoral collective agreements and the implementation of diversity taskforces in the workplace, including tackling stereotypes, prejudice and negative attitudes, preventing discrimination in recruitment, promotion, pay and access to training; highlights that these equality action plans should be also used to promote ethnic and cultural diversity at the workplace, to develop internal regulations against racism, related discrimination and harassment in the workplace, to monitor and review recruitment, progression and retention of workforce by equality strand in order to identify direct or indirect discriminatory practices and to adopt corrective measures to reduce inequality in each of these areas and, to this effect, collect equality data in respect of privacy and fundamental rights standards;
Amendment 59 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 e (new)
Paragraph 1 e (new)
1 e. Calls on the Commission to adopt a common EU framework for the collection and analysis of reliable and comparable disaggregated equality data for the purpose of combating discrimination, including in employment; adds that this should comprise labour market indicators to measure equality, including the employment position of migrants and minority groups, with full respect of privacy and fundamental rights standards;
Amendment 62 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Highlights that the most critical points to address in the area of Roma employment are effective transition from education to the open labour market, tackling discrimination by employers, matching labour demand with labour supply, and the growing rates of Roma youth not in education, with a focus on Roma women and girls and measures required for removing the barrier of traditional gender roles;
Amendment 70 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 a (new)
Paragraph 2 a (new)
2 a. Calls on the Member States to encourage stronger engagement of businesses, particularly at local level, and consider supporting the development of social enterprises to create sustainable workplaces for Roma, with a focus on Roma women;
Amendment 86 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Underlines the need for an urgent and thorough commitment by the relevant state authorities to the desegregation of Roma pupils in schools, as Roma children are often educated in segregated environments, while the misdiagnosis of Roma children as having special educational needs is still a common discriminatory practice; calls for reinforced effort to increase participation of Roma children in the whole education lifecycle, from pre-school to the tertiary level;
Amendment 93 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 a (new)
Paragraph 4 a (new)
4 a. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to develop coordinated approaches for the integration of Roma children in society; in this sense, calls for the urgent adoption of the European Child Guarantee in the ESF+ with dedicated resources of 20 billion euros, to support lifting a generation out of poverty;
Amendment 103 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Calls on the Member States to ensure that the competent regional and local authorities implement Roma-focused employment and social policies and monitor their results; calls on them, furthermore, to make the empowerment of Roma job seekers a priority for public employment services and employers, and to provide parallel job placement support or internships with IT and language training; stresses the key role of public employment services in promoting Roma employment in the civil service and reaching out to disadvantaged Roma job seekers;
Amendment 132 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Calls on the Member States to promote spatial desegregation and engage Roma beneficiaries in the design and implementation of housing projects, to reduce and prevent forced evictions and to provide sufficient and appropriate halting sites for non-sedentary Roma; points out that geographical isolation and housing segregation keep members of ethnic minorities away from decent jobs, regardless of their qualifications;
Amendment 136 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7 a (new)
Paragraph 7 a (new)
7 a. Calls on the Member States to increase their efforts in providing access to safe drinking water and sanitation and implementation of right to the adequate standard of living, as well as right to a healthy environment, with special attention paid to the most vulnerable groups of Roma, such as children, women and elderly;
Amendment 149 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 9
Paragraph 9
9. Acknowledges that specific funding priority for Roma was introduced in the Common Provisions Regulation7 and that country-specific recommendations related to Roma integration became a requirement for granting funds for its promotion; calls on the Member States and the Commission to guarantee that these changes will result in specific projects for the benefit of Roma on the ground8 , and to look into causes of low absorption rates in some Member States, also in line with recommendations of Court of Auditors to the Member States and tot he Commission in its special report no. 14/20167a. _________________ 7 Annex XI on ex ante conditionalities, Part I: Thematic ex ante conditionalities, Investment Priority 9.2 of Regulation (EU) No 1303/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 December 2013 laying down common provisions on the European Regional Development Fund, the European Social Fund, the Cohesion Fund, the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development and the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund and laying down general provisions on the European Regional Development Fund, the European Social Fund, the Cohesion Fund and the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund, OJ L 347, 20.12.2013, p. 320. 7aEuropean Court of Auditors, EU policy initiatives and financial support for Roma integration: significant progress made over the last decade, but additional efforts needed on the ground, 2016. 8Anna Mirga-Kruszelnicka, Revisiting the EU Roma Framework: Assessing the European Dimension for the Post-2020 Future, Open Society Institute, June 2017, p.17.