The Roma are spread out throughout the whole of Europe. This makes it more difficult to compile data than simply carrying out a census in one country. Instead the project would need to be coordinated across all members of the European Union. Something that would take both time and money. Both of which in the current recession are in short supply.

At the startpoint of the Decade, no data were asked to the government so that they justify the need of participating in it. In other words, the disastrous situation was simply assumed and none thought of contesting this assumption. Once more in the recent history, this assumption was only valid for Central and Eastern European countries, while in the "Traditionally Free and Democratic Europe", everything was supposed to be OK. A few time later, everyone could see the meravellous situation of Rromani people in Italy, France, Switzerland or Germany: pogroms, deportations, ethnic filing, forced evictions etc. However, this did not mean that elsewhere, in the countries involved in the Decade, the situation improved. What happened in Hungary isn't but the worst illustration of a worsening situation everywhere.

Is this degradation the effect of the Decade? Maybe not. Who could say what the situation would be if the Decade never started? Maybe some old Rromani woman used to read the future on the palms of people. Maybe someone else as well (auditors, analysts etc.). In any case, one thing seems rather clear: in the last five years, those who mostly advocated for collection of ethnic data were people like Maroni, and they started collecting them. This caused, and rightly so, strong reactions on behalf of civil society, including on behalf of structures belonging to Soros network or working very closely with it. Now, here we are again with a change: "no data - no progress", says OSI. Decadence, when obvious, does not need figures, and Decadence is there. One just needs to go to the field and open his/her eyes. Therefore, should we read rather "there is no progress because there are no data"? Everyone has the right to try for justifying his failures. However, when the justifications are fallacious and have negative consequences (in this case the constitution of ethnic data which the kind of use in the future is uncertain), it is better not to put them forward. This is a question of pure ethics and according to some (including myself) it is more important than the financial sustainability of a program that in midterm has not proved efficient (I'm saying so in order to be moderate).

Best ethical regards,

Saimir MILE Association "La voix des Rroms" http://www.lavoixdesrroms.org