February 2005

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DECADE OF ROMA INCLUSION 2005-2015 LAUNCHED

February 2005 – Eight eastern and central European countries (Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Serbia, Montenegro, Hungary, Romania and the Slovak Republic) have launched an initiative known as “Decade of Roma inclusion 2005-2015” aiming at abolishing the discrimination of the Roma population and achieving their integration in society. This joint initiative, launched in cooperation with the World Bank and the Open Society Institute (Soros Foundation), focuses on four priority areas: education, employment, health and housing, and on three related themes: poverty, discrimination and gender equality. The signing states have elaborated each a draft action plan in which they define the objectives they have committed to fulfil in the four areas mentioned.

It is in the area of education where several references are made to the Romani language, although these references are very few and affect only half of the states: Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia and Croatia. As regards Bulgaria, the draft action plan mentions the goal of preserving and developing the cultural identity of Roma children and pupils. The plan includes the introduction of Romani language teaching and the creation of the necessary educational and pedagogical conditions (school curricula, textbooks, teachers, etc.). In the case of Romania, the draft action plan also has a section on valuing and preserving the cultural heritage of the Roma and it refers, for instance, to creating opportunities to ensure full tuition in Romani language in pre-school and primary school. The Serbian draft action plan makes reference to Romani publishing and to offering elective subjects of Romani language (with all the necessary resources, such as programmes, teacher training and schoolbooks and manuals). And as regards the references made in Croatia’s draft action plan, they are very basic, as they only concern higher education.

All education goals of the Decade programme have concrete financial support through the establishment of the Roma Education Fund, which is currently being set up with offices in Budapest and Paris, with the active support of the Council of Europe. This Fund will deal with issues such as the harmonisation of teaching materials in the Romani language and the preparation of a framework for a European mother tongue curriculum for the Romani language.

The Roma are the most important minority in Europe as, with 10-12 million members, they account at least for 2% of the population of the EU, although the official censuses available are not reliable enough. The UN Development Programme has just published a report which is said to contain the largest set of data ever gathered on the Roma.