The 2011 EU Framework for National Roma Integration Strategies (the EU Roma Framework) set ambitious goals to close the gap between Roma and non-Roma in education, employment, housing, and health, as well as to protect Roma against discrimination. While there have been many achievements since 2011, the EU Roma Framework has failed to reach its goals in all policy areas, including combating discrimination. Its objectives were unrealistic and did not consider crucial missing elements.
This report recommends the creation of a fully-fledged strategy on Roma and the EU, not just a framework, and how to make future goals more concrete and achievable.
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Post-2020 EU Roma Strategy: The Way Forward (642.1 Kb pdf file)
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Roma Rights
A New Roma-led Vision of Power
![Zeljko Jovanovic, center, and other Roma leaders and activists march in Bucharest, Romania, on May 18, 2019. Photo credit: © Aresel/Gabriel T. Balanescu People march with the Romani flag](https://opensocietyfoundations.imgix.net/uploads/1a5aff32-749c-4797-a6db-9352b4c766d1/20230907-balanescu-aresel-romania-8952-crop-1300.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=200&q=80&rect=0%2C0%2C1300%2C813)
The new, independent, Roma Foundation for Europe is backed by a €100 million pledge that builds on Open Society’s over 30 years of support for Roma causes.
Roma Rights
Q&A: A Step Toward Justice for Roma Women
![Lawyer Vanda Durbakova meets with Roma women activists during a Poradna networking meeting in Herlany, Slovakia, on June 25, 2018. Photo credit: © Jan Varchola for Poradna Vanda Durbakova sitting at a table with other people](https://opensocietyfoundations.imgix.net/uploads/5163b3f1-269d-4625-952a-f21991620694/20180625-varchola-poradna-slovakia-1-3000.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=200&q=80&rect=0%2C63%2C3000%2C1875)
In November, the Slovak Republic formally apologized to Roma women for a program of forced sterilizations that stretched out for decades. How a Slovak human rights group helped hold the government accountable.
The Time Is Now
Where Roma Rights and Environmental Justice Meet
![A young woman hangs laundry next to a landfill in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, on July 22, 2015. Photo credit: Jerome Fourcade/Hans Lucas/Redux A young woman hangs laundry next to a landfill](https://opensocietyfoundations.imgix.net/uploads/908d4d6c-b5f3-4332-b307-48f34d12bd41/20210603-fourcade-romania-roma-landfill-3000.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=200&q=80&rect=0%2C63%2C3000%2C1875)
Leaders in the EU are confronted with a dual obligation—to restore healthy environments for Roma, and to do so with the full participation of Roma communities themselves.