On the issue of the lack of political will, Commissioner Reding was frank and forthright. For the Commissioner, 2010 was “a wake-up call,” not the events of the French summer, she hastened to add, but earlier in the year, at the EU Roma Summit when she saw that only three government ministers deigned to be present: “I thought where was the political responsibility in the Member States to care for a problem that concerns 10 million European citizens?” In these inauspicious times, the question remains pertinent, because the political will for the kind of change we need remains elusive. The EU press statement ran under the banner “European Commission making headway on Roma integration.” The Commission has shown its political will to make a difference to the lives of Roma, and its next Communication on the EU Framework will be followed by European Council recommendations. But what about the Member States? Members of the European Parliament have passed numerous resolutions, debated, discussed, and actively supported Roma inclusion over the years. However, the lived reality in villages, towns, and cities where Roma face very direct and indirect discrimination every day, may seem a universe away from resolutions passed in Brussels and Strasbourg. MEPs need to take the message back to their demos of origin, back to their political parties in cities such as Bratislava, Bucharest, Budapest, Paris, Prague, and Sofia.
Posted on: Mon, 10 Jun 2013 08:22:10 +0000
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