Europe is home to a Third World country with a population of ten million but which has no borders. The vast majority of this nation’s citizens live below the poverty line in conditions most Europeans would find unacceptable; as well as lower education levels, they suffer from noticeably higher rates of unemployment. These second-class citizens are the object of countless prejudices and superstitions that saw them deported by the Nazis in the past and that means they continue to suffer discrimination today, sometimes to the point of persecution. Particularly in Central Europe, they are the whipping boys of xenophobic movements, and the embodiment of the fears of other inhabitants.

Despite the fact that the Roma people make up a significant proportion of several national populations, especially in these countries, they are often refused the status of a minority group, and the protection such status would afford them. In 2008, the European Parliament called for a European strategy for the Roma people, but as yet there have been no concrete results. However, it is in the strong interest of the member states to make greater efforts to integrate the Roma people, first and foremost for humanitarian reasons, then for greater social cohesion and finally for the economic benefits.

A recent study by the World Bank puts the cost of excluding the Roma people at €5.7 billion for Bulgaria, Romania, the Czech Republic and Serbia alone. This includes both the loss of productivity resulting from the failure to employ people of Romani stock and the financial cost of failing to tax them. This study was presented at the Second European Summit on Actions and Policies in favour of the Roma population, held on the 8th and 9th of April at Córdoba. The twenty-seven member states would be well advised to take this into consideration when they find themselves scrabbling around for pennies to reduce levels of public debt that are soaring out of control.

Gian-Paolo Accardo

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