The OSE has been closely involved in the scientific preparation of the 4th European Roma Platform which took place on 13 December 2010, in the framework of the Belgian Presidency of the EU. At the request of the Belgian Secretary of State for Social Integration and Combatting Poverty (Philippe Courard), Romana Careja and Bart Vanhercke, together with several experts from UNICEF, drafted a Discussion Paper on “Preventing Social Exclusion through Europe 2020: Early Childhood Development and the Inclusion of Roma Families”.
The paper starts from the confronting finding that while the EU provides for a range of policy instruments (legislation, policy coordination and funding) that can be activated to promote the social inclusion of Roma, there is widespread agreement that the benefits of domestic and EU initiatives have not touched poor Roma communities in any significant way.
The paper points to the discrepancy between political discourse regarding the Roma and the reality “on the ground”, describes Roma exclusion from a child development perspective, explains why Roma families and children should receive special attention and support, and provides a snapshot of what has been done/tried (with mixed results) with regard to early childhood services for Roma children.
The final sections present ways forward at the EU and domestic level in the form of policy recommendations that link the Roma issue to, amongst others, the Europe 2020 Strategy.