Activists say Roma need a voice in local decision-making

Read this article in Romanian.

Active participation of Romani people and Roma mediators in local policy-making and budgetary decisions is key to addressing the community needs of the largest European ethnic minority, according to activists.

The European Commission is currently working to boost political participation among the Roma community through the EU Roma equality strategy.

This framework sets targets to achieve by 2030, including a stronger “participation of Roma in political life at local, regional, national and EU levels […] to ensure they register as voters, vote, run as candidates”.

However, active citizen participation among Roma remains low across the bloc.

According to a 2021 survey by the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) on five member states, only 23% of Roma respondents said they were interested in politics. Moreover, only 29% said they voted in municipal elections and only between 8 and 12% took part in political actions. 

“There is no culture of participation,” Ana Oprisan, ROMACT programme manager at the Council of Europe, told EURACTIV, adding that it is very hard to get Romani people to actively participate.

Through the ROMACT project, the Council of Europe is trying to boost participation in Bulgaria and Romania, taking into account that Roma is not a “homogenous” group.

‘Organic’ meetings

“We keep our community action groups not officially established, not monolithic, but as something organic and open, so anybody can come and go, because otherwise, you end up with the usual suspects,” she explained, adding that meetings often take place in coffee shops and schools.

The Council of Europe is also working with facilitators on the ground to prepare Romani people to participate in local decision-making processes.

“We basically teach people how to participate in a local council meeting,” she said.

According to Isabela Mihalache, advocacy officer at ERGO Network, Roma experts play a crucial role at the local level in Romania.

“Whether the community needs water or a sewage canal or very basic utilities, it is much easier to claim those needs by having this form of representation at the municipality,” she said.

In her view, Roma experts also help the administration “mapping how many Roma live there and what is their situation,” eventually leading to decisions taken by the local council.

Mapping issues can also push local authorities to claim resources at the national level to be allocated to the Roma community.

Roma budgeting

When it comes to allocating municipal funds, Roma activists agree that the community needs to be given a voice.

“That’s not just because we need to be inclusive, but also because they know best what the problem is,” Mihalache explained.

“Sometimes they also might have an idea of what the solution is because they have tried probably in a more informal way to solve it, but they didn’t have all the support and all the funds that are needed,” she added.

In the Western Balkans, a region where Roma discrimination remains high, the Roma Integration Regional Cooperation Council (RCC) has been working on a project about Roma budgeting, to make sure all socioeconomic policies are sensitive to the needs of Roma.

According to Aleksandra Bojadjieva, an RCC policy expert, Roma-responsive budgeting can also help check how funds are spent and who benefits from them.

Governments taking part in the project committed to ensuring that Roma integration efforts receive a fair share of public budgets.

According to Shejla Fidani, another policy expert at RCC, this approach could be applied in other regions too.

“Roma responsive budgeting is an effective way to allocate funds where they are most needed and where they will have the highest impact in return,” she said.

[Edited by Zoran Radosavljevic]

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