The European Parliament has adopted a new resolution calling on member states to do more to combat social exclusion and anti-gypsyism, to improve the lives of Romani people and to protect their health amid COVID. Specifically, the MEPs demand measures to ensure Romani people have equal access to housing, education, healthcare and employment.
MEPs ask member states to improve access to good quality and affordable healthcare for Romani people, including sexual and reproductive healthcare. They insist that all forms of ethnic segregation in health facilities be banned, including maternal health care settings. MEPs also ask member states to compensate survivors of forced and coercive sterilisation.
The text also notes that providing Romani children with an equal start in life is essential to breaking the poverty cycle, therefore all forms of school or class segregation experienced by these pupils must be eliminated. They condemn the discriminatory practice of placing them in schools for children with mental disabilities, still in place in some EU countries, and call on the Commission to continue pressing member states to desegregate, taking the cases to the European Court of Justice if needed.
The resolution was adopted with 545 votes to 96 and 54 abstentions.
To learn more, please read the full text of the document.