RCC's Roma Integration 2020 at 2018 EU Platform on Roma Inclusion in Brussels.

The Regional Cooperation Council's (RCC) Roma Integration 2020 (RI2020) Action Team prepared a set of recommendations intended to resolve the housing situation of Roma in a sustainable way and contribute to the progress of full realization of the fundamental rights of Roma, and shared them with participants of the 2018 EU Platform on Roma Inclusion, organized by the European Commission on 8 and 9 October in Brussels.

The main step in improving policies for the complete and sustainable integration of Roma in the region is introduction of a new approach to the housing needs of Roma, which would encompass in addition to a housing solution a full package of support services related to employment, education, health, non-discrimination and equal access to services.

'The holistic approach to housing is necessary because housing efforts that are disconnected from overall socio-economic integration efforts worsen the living situation of Roma', stressed Orhan Usein, RCC's RI2020 Action Team Leader. 'Providing only a housing unit, without urban and social infrastructure, access to health, employment and other public services, put Roma at the risk of losing the obtained housing and may further contribute to exclusion and segregation', explains Usein.

Further on, issues of increased homelessness and insecurity of tenure, problems related to legalization, poverty affecting the sustainability of housing units and the lack of accompanying infrastructure should be tackled through improved horizontal cross-institutional cooperation between local and other levels of governance in Western Balkan economies. Also...