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Civil Society Monitoring Report on the Implementation of the National Roma Integration Strategy and Decade Action Plan in 2012 in ROMANIA DECADE OF ROMA INCLUSION 2005-2015 Civil Society Monitoring on the Implementation of the National Roma Integration Strategy and Decade Action Plan in 2012 in ROMANIA Prepared by a civil society coalition comprising the following organizations: Resource Center for Roma Communities Foundation (lead organisation) n Soros Foundation Romania Civil Society Development Foundation n Roma Center for Health Policies – SASTIPEN Written by Florin Moisă n Iulius Albert Rostas n Daniela Tarnovschi n Iulian Stoian Daniel Rădulescu n Tania-Ştefania Andersen Coordinated by the Decade of Roma Inclusion Secretariat Foundation in cooperation with the Making the Most of EU Funds for Roma programme and the Roma Initiatives Office of the Open Society Foundations DECADE OF ROMA INCLUSION 2005-2015 www.romadecade.org DECADE OF ROMA INCLUSION 2005-2015 2 Published by Decade of Roma Inclusion Secretariat Foundation Teréz körút 46. 1066 Budapest, Hungary www.romadecade.org Design and layout: www.foszer-design.com Proofreading: Marianne Powell ©2013 by Decade of Roma Inclusion Secretariat Foundation All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any forms or by any means without the permission of the Publisher. ISSN: 2064-0757 All civil society monitoring reports are available at www.romadecade.org Civil SocietyCivil Monitoring TABLE OF CONTENTS 3 Executive Summary 7 romania Recommendations 19 Abbreviations 25 Introduction 27 1. Structural Requirements 31 2. Anti-Discrimination 45 3. Education 61 4. Employment 71 5. Healthcare 87 6. Housing 103 Case Studies 113 Bibliography 133 This report was prepared by a civil society coalition comprising the following organisations: Resource Center for Roma Communities Foundation (lead organisation, based in Cluj Napoca, Romania), Soros 5 Foundation Romania, Civil Society Development Foundation and Roma Center for Health Policies – SAS- TIPEN. The lead researcher and the project manager of the coalition is Florin Moisa (Resource Center for romania Roma Communities). The authors of the report are: Florin Moisă, Resource Center for Roma Communities (Structural Require- ments Chapter); Iulius Albert Rostas – Resource Center for Roma Communities (Education Chapter); Dan- iela Tarnovschi – Soros Foundation Romania (Employment and Housing Chapter); Iulian Stoian – Soros Foundation Romania, National School of Political Science and Public Administration (Anti-discrimination Chapter); Daniel Rădulescu – Roma Center for Health Policies – SASTIPEN (Health Chapter); Tania-Ştefania Andersen – Civil Society Development Foundation (Structural Requirements Chapter). The following re- searchers have been involved in the project: Ancuţa Radu, Loredana Daniela Dobra, Radu Lăcătuş, Adriana Arsenie, Eugenia Bratu, George Rădulescu. The following organisations have been involved in the advising on the report: the Decade of Roma Inclusion Secretariat Foundation, the Central European University’s Department of Public Policy, the European Roma Rights Centre, Habitat for Humanity, the Roma Education Fund, and from the Open Society Foundation: Making the Most of EU Funds for Roma program, the Roma Initiatives Office, and the Roma Health program. In the pilot year of 2012, the Decade Secretariat decided to support reports from civil society coalitions in seven countries (Albania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Macedonia, Romania, Slovakia, Spain) and the Roma Initiatives Office commissioned an additional report from the Czech Republic. In addition, the Decade Secretariat made a template public in order to encourage additional civil society actors to monitor the implementa- tion of National Roma Integration Strategies (NRIS) and Decade Action Plans. In the reports, civil society coalitions supplement or present alternative information to Decade Progress Reports submitted by Participating Governments in the Decade of Roma Inclusion and to any reports submitted by State parties to the European Commission on implementation of their NRIS. These reports are not meant to substitute for quantitative monitoring and evaluation by State authorities but to channel local knowledge into national and European policy processes and reflect on the real social impact of gov- ernment measures. The civil society reports provide additional data to official ones, proxy data where there is not official data, or alternative interpretation of published data. The project is coordinated by the Decade of Roma Inclusion Secretariat Foundation in cooperation with Open Society Foundation’s Making the Most of EU Funds for Roma program and the Roma Initiatives Office. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 7 After a decade of attempts to deal with the problems faced by Roma, the Romanian government prepared romania a new policy document in the broader context of the European Commission (EC) Communication in April 2011, regarding the elaboration/adoption of National Roma Inclusion Strategies by member states. The new policy “The Strategy of the Government of Romania for the Inclusion of Romanian Citizens Belonging to the Roma Minority for the Period 2012-2020” (the National Roma Inclusion Strategy – NRIS) replaces previous Roma policy documents adopted in 2001 and revised in 2006 (and which expired in 2011). Romania was among the first to sign the Decade of Roma Inclusion documents and also held its first Presidency, but in spite of these commitments, the Romanian government has never adopted a Decade Action Plan. In 2006, the Romanian government issued government decision no. 870/2006, which established the standard quality requirements for government strategies. In our analysis, the NRIS does not meet these requirements, generating significant difficulties for its implementation and monitoring. An action plan also needs to comply with certain standards of a policy document.1 A simple review of the NRIS action plan proves that it does not live up to these basic standards. Moreover, the NRIS falls short of the European Union’s requirements, as outlined in the EC Communication (April 2011). The NRIS’s elaboration was a rather superficial process. Very few suggestions and comments formulated by a large group of NGOs were considered and can be found in the final version of the NRIS adopted by the Government in December 2011. In 2009, the Presidential Commission for the Analysis of Social and Demographic Risks2 proposed a new ap- proach to tackling Roma issues, reflected in“a genuine and constant political approach to the challenges of ensuring equal opportunity policies for the Roma minority”. This recommendation is marginally reflected in the text of the current NRIS, and it remains a goal to be achieved considering the limited political capacity of the Roma community to act as a strong and reliable partner of public bodies. The NRIS was created under the pressure of EC deadlines and was not sufficiently focused on observing the minimum standards of policy formulation, with no effective evaluation of previous exercises and no relevant baseline or targets to be achieved. Furthermore, government agencies have failed to systematically collect data on the situation of Roma in Romania, whether quantitative or qualitative, and data collection by public institutions, except for the Cen- sus, tends to ignore ethnicity based on the argument that this would be against personal data protection legislation. However, data collection legislation allows for the collection of sensitive data for clear statistical purposes (law no. 677/2001 on the protection of persons regarding the use of personal data and the free movement of personal data). In addition, the implementation of EU-funded projects mandates the collec- tion and reporting of project beneficiaries’ personal data to managing authorities. During 2012 there were almost no new developments related to the NRIS, no systemic actions were or- ganised to discuss and analyse the NRIS, and, more importantly, there were no consistent actions taken 1 Romania, GD 870/2006, Annex, Section II, Lines of Action, 1.1. Types of policy documents. 2 Presidential Commission for the Analysis of Social and Demographic Risks: Risks and Social Inequalities in Romania/Riscuri şi ine- chităţi sociale în România, (2009), p. 212, available at: http://www.presidency.ro/static/CPARSDR_raport_extins.pdf. towards the implementation of the new Strategy. The Romanian government took very few steps to im- plement the NRIS mostly due to the fact that the European Commission was undertaking an assessment of the national strategies.3 As of April 2013, there was still no formal position of the government related to DECADE OF ROMA the revision recommendations formulated by the EC, which very much highlights the opinions expressed INCLUSION 2005-2015 by civil society on the inoperability of the strategy if it does not focus on: revising priorities, setting a clear baseline and targets to be achieved, allocating necessary financial resources and ensuring effective use of structural and cohesion funds to this benefit, ensuring relevant coordination among entities responsible for implementation and a robust and functional mechanism to have local authorities, civil society, Romani 8 communities involved in the implementation and monitoring. Budget allocations for NRIS implementation are inconsistent. Most measures either lack a specific budget allocation (on the ground that Roma focused actions do not need

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