By Martin Banks - 23rd September 2010
Roma MEP Lívia Járóka has welcomed the Hungarian government's pledge to launch a European Roma strategy during its stint at the helm of the EU presidency next year.
Hungary said it planned to come forward with an action plan "based on economic attributes instead of ethnicity".
The move follows the uproar over the treatment of Roma by the French authorities, which have closed dozens of encampments occupied by Roma people in recent weeks.
French president Nicolas Sarkozy has come in for fierce criticism for his support of the policy which has also seen hundreds of Roma deported from his country under the crackdown.
In a speech in Strasbourg during a debate on the issue in parliament, Járóka - the only Roma MEP - welcomed the announcement of Hungarian PM Viktor Orbán on launching a European Roma strategy during the upcoming Hungarian presidency in the first half of 2011.
Járóka said that the EPP group to which she belongs "had always been the propelling force behind developing a common EU programme for Roma inclusion".
She also expressed her hope that member states would also support the Hungarian presidency "in providing a common European solution for a common European problem".
"The primary cause behind the social exclusion of most European Roma is not racism or discrimination, but the interdependence of several historical and economic factors," she said.
According to Járóka, the strategy "must permit an EU-coordinated chain of complex development programmes based on clear and unambiguous indicators - such as the Laeken indicators - with proper community monitoring and taking advantage of the multilevel governance mechanism".
She emphasised that the pan-European action plan "must prevent the reproduction of deep poverty through generations".
She added, "In the medium term it is necessary to equalise the regional lag of the underdeveloped micro-regions and in the long run, the hopeless, poverty-stricken masses of today must become the equal taxpayers of tomorrow."
Járóka said this would require a "sustained, enhanced and shared effort" by all the stakeholders, the EU institutions, member states' authorities, NGOs, and also the Roma people".
"Europe cannot afford politics as usual - not at a time when the demographic and social challenges we face are so great and the consequences of inaction are so dangerous," she said.
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