Activities of Eugenia RODRÍGUEZ PALOP related to 2020/2011(INI)
Shadow opinions (1)
OPINION on the implementation of National Roma Integration Strategies: Combating negative attitudes towards people with Romani background in Europe
Amendments (30)
Amendment 1 #
Draft opinion
Recital -A (new)
Recital -A (new)
-A. whereas pursuant to Article 9 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, in defining and implementing its policies and activities, the Union shall take into account requirements linked to the promotion of a high level of employment, the guarantee of adequate social protection, the fight against social exclusion, and a high level of education, training and protection of human health;
Amendment 2 #
Draft opinion
Recital -A a (new)
Recital -A a (new)
-A a. whereas the adoption of the European Pillar of Social Rights is essential to reinforce social rights of people belonging to marginalised groups, such as people with Romani background;
Amendment 3 #
Draft opinion
Recital -A b (new)
Recital -A b (new)
-A b. whereas we strongly welcome the commitment of the Commission to develop a reinforced post-2020 European Strategic Framework for Roma equality, social and economic justice and combating antigypsyism;
Amendment 4 #
Draft opinion
Recital -A c (new)
Recital -A c (new)
-A c. whereas an unacceptably high proportion of Roma live at risk of poverty (on average, 80 % in 2016)1a; _________________ 1a EU FRA 2016 Second European Union Minorities and Discrimination Survey: Roma
Amendment 5 #
Draft opinion
Recital A
Recital A
A. whereas only 43 % of Roma are in some form of paid employment1 (56% of men and 29% of women) are in some form of paid work1; whereas Roma face higher rates of work intensity, job insecurity and unemployment rates, lack employment networks and suffer discrimination in the field of work; whereas 63 % of young Roma (aged 16-24) are not in education, employment or training (NEET)2 and in the case of young Roma women it amounts to 72% 1b; whereas the increasing share of Roma NEETs was an area where the situation had deteriorated in 2016 compared to 20113 ; ; _________________ 1European Commission, 2019 Report on National Roma Integration Strategies: Key Conclusions, p. 3.; EU FRA 2019 Second European Union Minorities and Discrimination Survey – Roma women in nine EU Member States. 1b EU FRA 2019 Second European Union Minorities and Discrimination Survey – Roma women in nine EU Member States. 2Report on the implementation of national Roma integration strategies – 2019, COM(2019)0406, p. 4. 3 Roma inclusion measures reported under the EU framework for NRIS, SWD(2019) 320 final, PART 1/2, p. 18.
Amendment 30 #
Draft opinion
Recital C a (new)
Recital C a (new)
C a. whereas equality between women and men must be ensured and fostered in all areas, including in the participation in the labour market, terms and conditions of employment, wages, qualification training, career change and progression;
Amendment 34 #
Draft opinion
Recital C b (new)
Recital C b (new)
C b. whereas Roma, and women in particular, experience a disproportionate impact of the Covid-19 pandemic in the access and supply of aid, goods and services;
Amendment 37 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Highlights the fact that Roma are one of the minority groups in Europe that face the highest rates of poverty, discrimination and social exclusion and whose fundamental rights, particularly economic and social rights, are not being respected, hindering their enjoyment; notes with regret that despite measures introduced in the last decade regarding the social inclusion of Roma, progress in the areas of housing, employment, education and healthcare has been limited; calls on local, regional and national authorities and governments to single out as a priority the implementation of the National Roma Integration Strategies (NRIS) and to strengten the role of the National Contact Points in the design, alignment and development of the NRIS;
Amendment 46 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 a (new)
Paragraph 1 a (new)
1 a. Recalls European Parliament Resolution of 12 February 2019 on the need for a strengthened post-2020 Strategic EU Framework for National Roma Inclusion Strategies and stepping up the fight against anti-Gypsyism; urges the Commission and the Member States to propose and commit to an ambitious, comprehensive and binding EU Strategic Framework for Roma equality, social and economic justice and combating antigypsyism for the post-2020 with concrete common objectives at EU level and minimum standards which Member States can translate into national targets, and where country specificities are relevant insofar as they aim to achieve more than the minimum standards; and to ensure that multiple and intersectional discrimination, gender mainstreaming and a child-sensitive approach are properly addressed;
Amendment 53 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 b (new)
Paragraph 1 b (new)
1 b. Urges the Commission and the Member States to include poverty, with a particular focus on child poverty, social exclusion and antigypsyism and non- discrimination as cross-sectional dimensions through the four key areas of the EU Roma Strategy and NRIS, ensuring that equality, sustainable employment opportunities, inclusive education, quality housing, and adequate healthcare contribute to the overall improvement of Roma wellbeing, and that multiple and intersectional discrimination, gender mainstreaming and a child-sensitive approach are properly addressed both in EU Strategic Framework and in the National Roma Integration Strategies (NRIS); Calls on local and regional authorities and governments to prioritise the adoption, revision and implementation of the NRIS in line with the post-2020 Strategic EU Framework, guaranteeing a strong connection of those strategies with mainstream policies;
Amendment 56 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 c (new)
Paragraph 1 c (new)
1 c. Acknowledges that in order to guarantee social and economic rights of Roma people, a more comprehensive approach should be considered, strengthening the institutional recognition of the Roma minority as a social actor and the effective and organised participation of the representative organisations of Roma civil society, enabling their meaningful participation in the implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the economic and social policies; and calls on the Commission to consider Roma participation as a binding common quality standard for the future Strategic EU Framework and the national strategies and that financial and structural mechanisms ensure equal and quality participation;
Amendment 63 #
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, addressing substandard working conditions and exploitation, and the growing rates of Roma youth not in education;
Amendment 65 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 a (new)
Paragraph 2 a (new)
2 a. Calls on the Commission to meet its commitment to adopt an action plan to implement the European Pillar of Social Rights and to incorporate Roma inclusion as an indicator in the social scoreboard of the European Pillar of Social Rights; urges the Commission and the Member States to target Roma to reflect their specific situation, ensuring quality employment, access to decent jobs, fair wages and working conditions and guaranteeing that social protection systems and social services are adequate, accessible and used by potential beneficiaries, including universal health coverage without discrimination, minimum income schemes and pension rights;
Amendment 71 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 b (new)
Paragraph 2 b (new)
2 b. Calls on the Member States to ensure that people of Romani background who exercise their mobility rights can access all necessary health care in the member state where they reside, and that neither poverty nor the residence status constitute a barrier to accessing needed health and social services;
Amendment 73 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 c (new)
Paragraph 2 c (new)
2 c. Calls on Member States to invest in labour monitoring and complaint mechanisms that are resourced, accesible and effective for all workers, regardless of their nationality or residence statuts, to protect workers from employer retaliation and harmful consequences and to support civil society organizations to provide information about their rights and means to exercise them;
Amendment 77 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3 a (new)
Paragraph 3 a (new)
3 a. Calls on the Commission and the Council to ensure that the next MFF facilitates synergies between those overarching EU policies that are relevant to Roma issues and the post-2020 Strategic EU Framework, and that poverty reduction, Roma inclusion and access to health are maintained as thematic priorities under the ESIF and linked to national poverty reduction strategies and action plans; urges the Commission and the Council to address the unequal situation that Roma face across the EU in the ESF+, and recalls the resolution of the European Parliament on the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on the European Social Fund Plus (ESF+), which includes as an specific objective “(viiia) fighting discrimination against and promoting the socioeconomic integration of marginalised communities such as Roma”;
Amendment 88 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 a (new)
Paragraph 4 a (new)
4 a. Calls on the Commission to put greater emphasis on youth in the EU Roma Framework 2021-2027, in particular on the transition from education to employment, and ensure that member states make youth employment a priority in their NRIS; urges the Commission and the Member States to ensure that the implementation of the Youth Guarantee Initiative for the period 2021-2027 will consider as beneficiaries young Roma, and to adopt an ambitious and inclusive European Child Guarantee that also takes into account their rights and needs; calls on the Commission and the Member States to reform the European Youth Guarantee and the Youth Employment Initiative, giving particular attention to the most marginalised, including measures such as better targeting of training programmes specifically for marginalised group, specific training for Public Employment Services on how to reach out to and deal with marginalised groups, or strengthened partnerships with educational institutions and NGOs to reach out to Roma and other marginalised groups;
Amendment 101 #
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 seekerto adopt measures to overcome stereotypes and antigypsyism in the labour market, to provide parallel job placement support, training and re-qualification particularly for the green and digital transition, to support initial work experience, on-the- job training and 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; calls on the Commission to promote the use of the Microfinance and Social Entrepreneurship axis of the EaSI programme, targeting Roma explicitly to improve their access to microfinancing and urges member States to provide access to financing for Roma entrepreneurs (SMS) by giving them technical assistance, financial support and access to market opportunities;
Amendment 107 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 a (new)
Paragraph 5 a (new)
5 a. Calls on the Commission to consider Roma population in the framework of the updated Skills Agenda for Europe, and to encourage national public authorities to ensure that vocational training schemes targeting Roma reflect their specific situation, as well as the increased demands of the labour market in this sector; calls on Member States to promote skills training for the Roma population, fostering vocational educational training;
Amendment 113 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 b (new)
Paragraph 5 b (new)
5 b. Calls on the Commission to bring EU law in line with the UN legal framework regarding the human right to water and expand the applicability of water-related directives to include problems with the accessibility and affordability of water supply and services; to develop indicators and monitoring mechanisms on social equity in access to water and sanitation in Member States, to task the EU Fundamental Rights Agency with conducting annual data collection, and to earmark funds to tackle limited access to water and sanitation supply services for socially excluded and ethnically-discriminated groups;
Amendment 116 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 c (new)
Paragraph 5 c (new)
5 c. Urges Member States to adopt with urgency laws explicitly recognising the human right to water and sanitation and ensure that all people enjoy access to safe drinking water and sanitation; ensure that informal housing conditions do not prevent people from enjoying the right to safe drinking water and sanitation; adopt policies and allocate budgets for connecting Roma settlements to public drinking water and sewerage systems; and ensure that adequate safe drinking water and sanitation facilities are available in Roma neighbourhoods and settlements;
Amendment 117 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 d (new)
Paragraph 5 d (new)
5 d. Calls on the Member States to ensure that residents of informal dwellings are protected from eviction and demolition of their homes, unless they are provided with alternative, standard housing in a desegregated setting with access to public services;
Amendment 118 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 e (new)
Paragraph 5 e (new)
5 e. Calls on Member States to minimise the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic in overcrowded and inhuman housing conditions of Roma by legalising informal settlements of Roma, investing in infrastructure and housing improvement for newly legalized informal settlements and providing sufficient and appropriate halting sites for non- sedentary Roma; alternatively, to provide permanent, decent, affordable, environmentally safe, desegregated housing for Roma currently living in informal settlements;
Amendment 119 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 f (new)
Paragraph 5 f (new)
5 f. Calls on Member States to adopt under the Covid-19 crisis urgent measures to address lack of water, adequate sanitation, electricity and needed infrastructure in poor Roma communities; to fully include Roma settlements in disinfection measures; to prohibit the cancellation of basic utility services during the pandemic; to consider subsidizing consumption costs for the most vulnerable and those who have lost incomes, or freezing payments until the end of the recovery plan period; to provide financial support for lone parents/single mothers for childcare, rent payments and other household expenses to alleviate the financial hardship, especially in light of the job losses;
Amendment 120 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 g (new)
Paragraph 5 g (new)
5 g. Calls on Member States to ensure that no Roma is left behind under the Covid-19 crisis, by supporting vulnerable Roma workers, particularly women and single parents; and by including specific provisions and indicators on Roma when implementing European instruments for temporary support (SURE and FEAD);
Amendment 121 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Recalls the fact that the Racial Equality Directive6 provides protection and guarantees for equal treatment with regard to access to and supply of goods and services, including housing, which is primarily within the remit of national and regional governments and that ineffective implementation of the Racial Equality and the Employment Equality Directives at the national level costs the EU €224– 305 billion in lost GDP and €88-110 in lost tax revenue; calls on the Commission to closely monitor their compliance and urges Member States to end structural discrimination in access to employment and in the workplace, to promote positive narratives of diversity, providing anti- discrimination training for public employment services, employers, and staff; and to sanction discrimination; _________________ 6 Article 3(1)(h) of Council Directive 2000/43/EC of 29 June 2000 implementing the principle of equal treatment between persons irrespective of racial or ethnic origin, OJ L 180, 19.7.2000, p. 22.
Amendment 128 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Calls on the Member States to define segregation in housing as illegal in line with the International Convention on the Elimination of All Form of Racial Discrimination; and to promote spatial desegregation and engage Roma beneficiaries in the design and implementation of housing projects, to preduce and preventvent, prohibit and eradicate forced evictions and to provide sufficient and appropriate halting sites for non-sedentary Roma; the prevention of forced evictions should be strengthened through services such as social counselling, debt management and mediation, and active detection of households or areas at higher risk, and no evictions should take place without substitute standard, affordable housing in a desegregated setting with access to public service;
Amendment 146 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 8
Paragraph 8
8. Welcomes the EU added value through the establishment of a close link between the European Semester, the European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF) in theirCalls on the European Union and the Member States to make further efforts in the alignment of the European Semester, the ESF+ and all EU funds in the period 20214-2020 programming period and the NRIS7 with the NRIS and the European Pillar of Social Rights, and urges the Member States to publicly declare the share of their national budgets that is allocated to this end;
Amendment 151 #
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 groundimplement long-term, large scale and ambitious programmes and policies both from a target and a mainstream perspective8 . _________________ 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. 8 Anna Mirga-Kruszelnicka, Revisiting the EU Roma Framework: Assessing the European Dimension for the Post-2020 Future, Open Society Institute, June 2017, p.17.
Amendment 160 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 9 b (new)
Paragraph 9 b (new)
9 b. Calls on the European Union and the Member States to strengthen data and research to better identify and understand intersecting discrimination; encourages the European Commission to keep track of the multifaceted aspects of poverty and social exclusion in Roma communities using the combined AROPE indicator in Eurostat;