Update: See the summary of the responses from the network membership (24 February2013).

In order to follow up the invitation we received from the European Commission, DG Justice all members are invited to comment on the National Roma Integration Strategies and the progress registered during 2012.  Short comments should be sent to the secretary of the network no later than 31 January 2013.

Invitation to contribute to an evaluation statement on the National Roma Integration Strategies (January 2013)

At its recent meeting in Brussels in December 2012, the Scientific Committee was approached by the European Commission’s DG Justice and invited to submit a statement evaluating the progress in 2012 regarding the National Roma Integration Strategies submitted to the Commission by the member states a year ago. In response, the SC is inviting Network members with expertise in one or more of the domains listed below in relation to one or more specific member countries, to comment on the strategy document and the progress achieved so far of the relevant member state.

The strategy documents can be found at this link: http://ec.europa.eu/justice/newsroom/discrimination/news/120523_en.htm

Short commentaries (1-2 pages) are invited that will evaluate an individual document under one or more of the following four headings and the progress in these domains (see below for further information):

1. Involvement of regional and local authorities and civil society
2. Allocation of proportionate financial resources
3. Monitoring to enable policy adjustments
4. Fighting discrimination convincingly

We wish to use this opportunity to identify gaps in the documents and in the practices initiated, and to use this channel in order to instigate an improvement of the strategies, as a pre-condition toward their successful implementation.

The Scientific Committee will compile a synthesis of the commentaries, which will be given publicity and will be submitted directly to the DG Justice.

Commentaries should be received no later than 31 January 2013. They should be sent directly to the Network Secretary, Lászlo Fosztó rsnet.secretary@gmail.com

Enquiries can be directed to one of the following SC members:

• Elisabeth Tauber (topic 1)
• Yaron Matras (topic 2)
• Michael Stewart (topic 3)
• Colin Clark (topic 4)

Further information:

1) Involvement of regional and local authorities and civil society

Are there inadequacies in the specifications for the involvement of local authorities and civil society organisations, and how can these be improved? Are there any particular civil society institutions that should be named as part of the strategy? Are there examples of good practice in local authorities that can be drawn upon?

2) Allocation of proportionate financial resources

Are the measures proposed supported by a realistic and transparent budget proposal? Are any measures proposed that require allocation of resources that are not specified?

3) Monitoring to enable policy adjustments

Is a monitoring strategy in place, and is it realistic? Is there room to amend or extend this strategy? What elements should a monitoring strategy include?

4) Fighting discrimination convincingly

Do the measures proposed and the analyses that back them up in the document constitute together a convincing strategy to combat the discrimination of Roma?

Download this document in PDF.