Special report: Roma-Net - Returning Dignity to the Roma People

"In Hungary, like elsewhere, the process of social inclusion for the Roma will be long and complex." Even before the first meeting of the Local Support Group in Budapest, Gizella Mátyási, Lead Partner of Roma-Net and director of the Hungarian capital's office of representation in Brussels, is very clear. Her words reflect the extreme complexity of the problem and the failure of ten years of fighting discrimination against the Roma on both a European level and within the Member States.

Exclusion in multiple forms

Today, the social exclusion faced by Roma populations has the same face throughout Europe. Their community accumulates all the factors linked to poverty, including youth, unemployment, low levels of schooling and professional qualifications, limited access to health services and difficult housing conditions.

In Hungary, like in other Central and Eastern European countries, the situation faced by 600,000 Roma (6% of the Hungarian population) has become worse since the fall of the Communist bloc. Hungarian Euro-MP Livia Jaroka, of Roma descent, explains: "Before, the Roma worked in factories with non-Roma and there were mixed marriages. Today, 80% to 90% of Roma in Hungary are unemployed or work under the table. There are no longer shared places where the two communities can meet and discuss."

This isolation results in prejudices that stick, and the economic crisis has only exacerbated inter-community tension. In 2009, anti-Roma racist aggressions multiplied in Hungary, but also in the Czech Republic, in Spain and in Italy.

Fragmented responses without tangible results

In Budapest, the social situation of Roma is generally better than in the rest of the country. Since 2005, the city has launched a number of social and employment-related initiatives as part of the Decade of Roma Inclusion programme (2005-2015), which groups together 12 Member States, Hungary being one of the founding members. However, the projects are led by a multitude of players and remain localised. "Most of all," Gizella Mátyási says, "the municipality of Budapest is not aware of them, due to the city's double administrative layer, whose local governance is ensured by the District authorities."

As for the Hungarian government, it has spent €553 million in the last 20 years to promote social inclusion of the Roma. Some notable progress has been made, including better access to schooling and development of farming programmes favouring the transfer of farmable parcels. However, the results are greatly insufficient, for two main reasons: lack of concrete action and of cooperation among the various stakeholders.

In 2008, by vote of the European Council, the European Union committed to defining a joint European policy in favour of the Roma. Europe is depending on cities and their integrated actions plans to bring concrete action to support this objective.

Roma-Net: Moving towards new ideas

Faced with such huge challenges, the first mission Rama-Net must undertake is to build up an international exchange network that will facilitate implementing this joint policy via good practices found in Local Action Plans.

Each Roma-Net partner city has three areas to work in for their operational implementation:

• providing access to basic services such as healthcare, social services and housing:
• promoting professional integration through educating children, to break the cycle in which lack of qualifications engenders unemployment and poverty;
• creating social cooperative by and for the Roma population.

In Budapest, Gizella Mátyási also sees Roma-Net to be "a first-ever opportunity to put an end to the lack of cooperation that exists among the various local stakeholders in order to build an integrated action plan. By building a LSG made up of all the public services and bodies, NGOs and Roma associations, we intend to construct the foundations of a tight group capable of leading coherent joint projects over time."

Inspiration in Budapest: District 8

As part of its determination to harmonize the somewhat limited existing actions, Budapest intends on capitalizing on the success of the urban social regeneration programme that has been led since 1998 in the capital's District 8. The project pilot, Rev'8, jointly run by the City Hall and the District, will take part in the LSG.

District 8 has a majority Roma population and the highest unemployment rates in the city. The district and its 12,000 inhabitants are benefiting from 4 actions plans led simultaneously and collaboratively (with local businesses, inhabitants and investors). It has had a positive impact, and among other things allowed the rehabilitation of 1,100 apartments and the creation of schools. District 8 will serve as an example for the LSG, with its collaborative working process and the actions it will be leading in the coming years.


Read more:

• Roma net – URBACT website