Politici de incluziune a romilor în statele membre ale Uniunii Europene

The aim of the study is to offer to decision-makers the necessary data regarding European policies of social inclusion for the Roma, with focus on the practices which have shown a positive impact in the fields of education, employment, housing and health, and to accompany the analysis with policy recommendations for a more efficient and effective action in promoting Roma inclusion. The second chapter, Social Inclusion Policies at the European Level: Mainstreaming versus Targeting offers a brief historical overview of the European policy framework within which social inclusion was conceptualised and its corresponding policies were articulated, along with preoccupations with the situation of the Roma, defined as a European minority subject to centuries-long discrimination. It reminds the reader the definition of „social inclusion” mentioned in European documents and connects the development of the concept and its corresponding social policies to the discourse on the risks of poverty and social exclusion, which can be found already in the 1984 documents of the Council of European Communities. The first part of the chapter presents the emergence and evolution of the Lisbon agenda (2000) and the Open Method of Coordination in the Domain of Social Policies (OMC) that became operational soon after, along with the main indicators aimed to measure the extent and depth of poverty and social exclusion in EU member states, i.e. the Laeken indicators and the currently employed AROPE indicator. It discusses the role of the European Platform against Poverty and Social Exclusion, launched in 2010 as part of the Europe 2020 strategy for smart, sustainable development that fosters social inclusion. The Platform aims to stand for a political commitment of EU member states to promote social innovation and more efficient use of European funds for the objectives of social inclusion. Recently, the European Commission also recommended adding a series of social indicators (i.e. the rate of long term unemployment and the neither-in-work-nor-in-education rate among the youth) in the monitorization of the European common market. [...]