ERIO conference on Roma access to political participation
“Roma Access to Political Participation” Conference report
“In an ideal world, 24 of the 785 members of the European Parliament should come from the Roma community. However this is very far from reality”
On April 16th, ERIO organized a conference at the European Parliament regarding Roma access to political participation. It was a very important event as important representatives from EU institutions gathered (such as MEP Claude Moraes, Jean Lambert and Gyula Hegy; and the member of the Cabinet of the European Commissioner Vladimir Spidla, Jan Jarab), EU officials, Roma representatives (such as Andrzej Mirga and Rumyan Russinov) as well as human rights activists. In the first part of the conference, the EU position on Roma political participation wasemphasized; while the second part focused on experiences in promoting Roma political participation. During the opening remarks, Pedro Aguilera, the Chair of ERIO’s board, reminded the participants that political participation is the most important part of society because it is through politicalparticipation and voting that the population can influence the shaping of policies. "In the last 50 years - he stated - only a few Roma have been elected to the European Parliament, out of a population of over 10 million. Ideally, or proportionally speaking, there should be 24 Roma in the European Parliament". Heavy unemployment and poor living conditions among the Roma are direct results of under representation., Consequently, the Roma lose interest and motivation to participate in politics due to under representation. "It would be a great achievement - Aguilera continued - if there were 3 speakers of the European institutions who were Roma. More Roma are needed in the European Commission and Parliament". A full report on the conference will be published on our next quarterly Newsletter.
