ROMA IN EUROPE From Social Exclusion to Active Participation Editor Peter Thelen Friedrich Ebert Stiftung Skopje 2005 Publisher Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, Skopje Bul. Sveti Kliment Ohridski 21/1 http://www.fes.org.mk Editor Peter Thelen Translation from German Christa Bastian Marianne Becker-Dalhoff Annette Brinkmann Jeremy Gaines Cover design and pre-press Promo DSGN, Skopje Copies 500 Copyright by Friedrich Ebert Stiftung CIP – Каталогизација во публикација Народна и универзитетска библиотека “Св. Климент Охридски“, Скопје 304.4(=214.58:4)(035) 316.722-027.542(=214.58)(4)(035) ROMA in Europe : from social exclusion to active participation / editor Peter Thelen : [translation from German Christa Bastian …и др.]. – Skopje : Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, 2005. – 230 стр. : 22,4 cm ISBN 9989-109-25-7 1. Thelen, Peter а) Роми во Европа – Општествено-политичка положба – Македонија – Прирачници б) Роми – Културен идентитет – Европа – Прирачници COBISS.MK – ID 62913546 2 Contents Foreword 5 Peter Thelen Roma Policy: The Long Walk 7 Towards Political Participation Günter Grass Without a Voice 75 Rajko Djuric A Standard Rromany Language – A 79 pre-condition and basis for a national and cultural identity for the Rroma Marcel Courthiade Who is afraid of the Rromani 93 language? Andrzej Mirga Roma and EU-Accession: Elected 117 and appointed Romani Representatives in an Enlarged Europe Claude Cahn Roma Rights and Anti- 151 Discrimination Law Jenö Kaltennbach, The Hungarian Participation Model 171 László Fórika and Its Implementation for the Roma Sevdija Demirova- Roma’s self-government in Shuto 197 Abdulova Orizari Osman Balic The difficult process of building a 215 strong political Roma party in Serbia and Montenegro Authors 225 3 ROMA IN EUROPE Foreword This book focuses on a new policy framework and is being published with the intention of encouraging a greater understanding for the right of the Roma to participate to a greater extent than in the past in the decision-making processes affecting them as well as in realizing the programs based on these decisions and controlling them. In other words, the book addresses a policy for the Roma, meaning one that is legitimated with and by the Roma, one that is formulated and put into practice by them, one that is devised in light of the political actors involved and rooted in those who represent them. It addresses both non-Roma, who usually have little knowledge of the Roma and whose opinion is blurred by prejudice, and the Roma, who despite the tough living conditions most of them have to master nevertheless find the energy to stand up for the interests of their group at the local, regional, state or even European level. For centuries now, i.e., since their arrival in Europe, the Roma are the subject of political decisions that have as a rule been leveled against them. In their “gypsy policies”, the political decision makers tended to be in line with the opinion of the majority of the population, among whom nurtured by prejudice fears prevailed. While the intensity of the persecution of the Roma everywhere and at all times has differed, it certainly culminated sadly in the Nazi genocide, to which hundreds of thousands of Sinti and Roma fell victim. Despite this historical background, the Roma disappeared for decades from the public eye and the political domain, although their disadvantaging continued. Not until the divisions in Europe started to be overcome did political attention start to be directed toward the Roma. European integration and the greater interest European policy makers have shown in the Roma has for the first time created an opportunity to break the vicious circle of prejudices and social marginalization. Many Roma believe this trend offers a basis for politicizing the debate on the Roma and for demanding political participation. In the first essay in this volume the editor endeavors to shed light on this debate, the background, and the stimuli it has triggered and render these accessible to the general public. – Günter Grass, the Nobel Prize laureate for literature, was probably the first prominent non-Roma to publicly champion Roma participation in policy-making at the European level. The relevant extract from his speech in Strasbourg is reprinted here. 5 Peter Thelen The debate on political participation by the Roma likewise hinges on a discussion of how the Roma are seen and how they see themselves. This relates to the question of identity as a community- building factor. For ethnic minorities or nations, a shared language is not only a means of communication but also of finding an identity. The Roma language, and it has survived a millennium of migration, is an endangered cultural heritage in Europe worthy of protection. In their essays, Rajko Djuric and Marcel Courthiade address the political and linguistic aspects of the use of the Roma language. Andrzej Mirga, himself one of the initiators of the debate on political participation for the Roma and still an active commentator and shaper of a Roma policy in the above sense, describes a highly informative discussion between representatives of the Roma and those of the European Parliament and the European Commission. In so doing he takes stock of the progress made in participation for Roma in various new EU member states as has been necessitated by the EU’s policy on this issue. The main reason for the untenable situation in which the majority of the Roma find themselves is anti-ciganism, which has repeatedly led to discrimination against the Roma. In his essay, Claude Cahn discusses the current state of things in this regard and outlines the legislation aimed to prevent discrimination. An interesting model for minority participation (if one that can in part be criticized) was that introduced in Hungary in the early 1990s. Jenö Kaltenbach was involved in devising the model and since being put in place as the ombudsman has accompanied its implementation ever since. Together with László Fórika he describes the impact the Hungarian legislation on minorities has had on the Roma. Sevdija Demirova-Abdulova describes another example for the Roma assuming political responsibility, and probably the most important instance at the local level, namely the Macedonian community of Shuto Orizari. Osman Balic by contrast outlines the difficulties of rendering participation by the Roma more effective in the Roma parties in Serbia and Montenegro. The editor has tried to make certain that in this volume the majority, but not all the contributions were authored by Roma. Some of them, for good reason, choose the spelling “Rrom”, others stick with the version “Rom”. Peter Thelen Budapest, Nov. 2005 6 ROMA IN EUROPE Peter Thelen Roma Policy: The Long Walk Towards Political Participation 1. Roma in Europe On 1 May 2004, the European Union was joined by ten new members. As a result of this greatest ever enlargement, the total population of the “Europe of 25” has increased by 74 million to a total of 453 million. Other countries are seeking membership and are likely to join the EU in the foreseeable future. The decision to divide Europe, taken at the Yalta conference almost 60 years ago, has been thoroughly overcome. The debate about a constitution for an enlarged European Union has demonstrated how difficult it is to create a workable decision- making mechanism for an entity this large. After all, the constitution process is about each member’s power, where ‘members’ means countries. The size or the ‘weight’ of a member state can be determined in several ways, such as its territory or its GDP. One obvious criterion is the size of a country’s population, a figure of great importance in the debate on how the votes in the EU’s decision-making bodies are to be counted. By this standard, the size of EU member states varies considerably, with Germany having a population of 82 million while three other countries have less than one million (Cyprus, 0.8m, Luxembourg and Malta 0.4m each). Countries with less than 3m people are Estonia, Lithuania and Slovenia.11 of the 25 member states have a population of less than 6m. The completion of the recent enlargement process has included into the EU a people1 that does not have a state of its own. In fact, the enlargement has brought on a doubling of the EU’s Roma population to its current 3 million citizens. The European 1 Here and in the following the word "people"(Volk) is used as an unspecific expression in order to avoid the term "community" which, since F. Tönnies – i.e. since the late 19th century - has been used across the German literature in conjunction with “community-building factors”. “People” is a term also used by Romani representatives. Cp. inter alia, Djuric, R., Ohne Heim – ohne Grab. Die Geschichte der Roma und Sinti, Berlin 2002, p. 17f 7 Peter Thelen Parliament’s Resolution on the Situation of Roma in the European Union of 28 April 2005 speaks of 7 to 9 million Roma living within the EU. The countries that are currently seeking membership, with good prospects, have a significant percentage of Roma in their population, too. In Romania alone, their number is estimated to be between 1.5 and 3 million. Hence, the next enlargement wave is likely to result in another considerable increase in the EU’s Roma population. The South East European countries for which the EU has adopted special responsibility and which are also considering EU membership have an estimated one million strong Romani population, too. So even now the number of Roma people in the enlarged EU outnumbers the populations of some of its smaller member states. Assuming there are 3 million Roma in Europe, which is a conservative estimate, there are now 6 EU countries with less people than there are Roma in Europe.