Effective Programmes for the Active Integration/Inclusion of the Roma in South- East Europe 

The Roma/Gipsy minority is the largest ethnic minority in Europe. Around 10-12 million Roma are estimated to live in Europe and approx. 68% of them in countries covered by the SEE program. The exclusion and social deprivation of the Roma is an untimely and unresolved problem in the whole area. Despite various of programs and initiatives targeting them, Roma communities in are still exposed to discrimination and segregation, and their equal access to work, education, social benefits, health care, adequate housing, other public services and justice is still limited. Problems related to the inclusion and integration of Roma in SEE are not isolated, neither is the two-fold challenge tackled by PAIRS: 1) the successful but fragmented actions and methods for integration, which do not reach the critical mass to influence policies/programming and which are not appropriately disseminated/transferred; 2) and the national/regional policies not taking into account of effective initiatives, and fail to cooperate with the civil society and other stakeholders in planning and policy design. Therefore PAIRS partners are approaching these challenges in a complementary, transnational manner, preparing concrete measures on the ground by capitalising of each other's experiences and know-how to 1) elaborate/adopt methods and improve existing good practices and programmes which are effective in reaching target groups and ensure the long term integration of the Roma population to be used by civil society organisations and public administrations; 2) demonstrate the added value and evidence of transnationally explored bottom up activities and to facilitate the streamlining of the lessons learned from these methods and initiatives to European and national programming for a better governance of Roma integration issues. The PAIRS partnership involves 18 (11 financing) partners from 8 SEE (5 ERDF, 2 IPA and 1 ENPI) countries where the exclusion of Roma population represents a high policy priority. The consortium provides a horizontal and vertical combination of various expertise and competences in governance (national and local) and programme implementation (local/regional/national level, on several thematic fields). As a RESULT of partners' and ASPs' joint activities in the two content-Work Packages include: 1. Existing good practices/methods of integration are identified, analysed and disseminated, and their elements are transferable by a Toolbox. 2. Elements of good practices are transferred to local/regional environments/communities through action plans, initiating the future full scale implementation of these solutions. 3. A permanent network sustains the interactive knowledge exchange and dialogue amongst practitioners even after the project lifespan. 4. Key stakeholders of Roma integration are engaged in policy dialogue and mutual learning, as a first step towards enhanced policies and evidence-based programmes. 5. A common methodology for participatory policy dialogue on the topic of Roma integration is elaborated. 6. EU and national level policy recommendations common positions are formulated on the desirable orientation of funding programmes of 2014-2020 period. Through these results, the project will offer integrated, sustainable solutions, with the consent of all important stakeholders of Roma inclusion, that will be convertible to programming. More effective and widely used integration methods and evidence based programming and funding schemes targeted to Roma inclusion will help achieve the aim of the Europe 2020 strategy to lift 20 million people out of poverty in the next 10 years. PAIRS results will also contribute to strategic objectives of the EU Framework for National Roma Integration Strategies up to 2020, which states that more effective and efficient use of financial resources targeted to the integration and social inclusion of the Roma is required.