The following was delivered at the Second European Summit on Actions and Policies in Favour of the Roma Population held in Cordoba, Spain.

I am pleased to be here for the Second Roma Summit. These meetings often begin with noble statements and end with lofty declarations. Echoing Commissioner Reding, I would like to see something practical come out of today's summit.

We are all here because we know what a serious problem we face and recognize that we urgently need to find a solution. Up to 12 million Roma live in Europe today, primarily in the East. Eastern Europe enjoyed tremendous economic growth over the past two decades until the recent financial crisis. For most Roma, however, life is worse than before. Under communism, they were assigned housing and jobs. But the factories in which many worked have gone out of business. Seventy percent of Roma are unemployed and many live in appalling conditions.

These economic woes are compounded by social tension. In every country where Roma live, the general population is hostile toward them. Despite court rulings ordering reform, Roma are regularly denied equal access to housing, education, and healthcare. In some countries, Roma children are automatically put into classes for the mentally disabled, simply because they are Roma. In others, they are shunted into separate and inferior schools or classrooms set aside for Roma.

This violates the law of the European Union.  Just three weeks ago the European Court of Human Rights ruled against EU candidate Croatia for segregating Roma children into separate classes. In 2007 the Court ruled against the Czech Republic for segregating Roma children in the town of Ostrava, but three years later the Czech Republic has made almost no progress toward ending this shameful practice. In Slovakia, a recent study by the Roma Education Fund documented systematic segregation of Roma children into schools for the mentally disabled.

The situation is not so bad in Western Europe because fewer Roma live there, but the influx from the East is encountering social resistance. In Italy, the Roma are actually persecuted by the state, in violation of European law. Spain has done much better in making sure that Roma are equal members of society, but even here, many Roma children are relegated to separate schools.

In a Europe of falling birthrates, the Roma are one of the few fast-growing groups. According to recent estimates, by 2015 roughly 25 percent of people in Hungary entering the workforce will be Roma. Demographic trends are similar in neighboring countries.  The well-being of the Roma children who will be the European workforce of the future is therefore not just a question of human rights, but economic necessity.

Truth be told, the Roma and the majority population are caught in a vicious circle. Reality and stereotype reinforce each other in a reflexive fashion. This vicious circle needs to be broken.

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