The Commission is requesting other European institutions to take better account of Roma, and is identifying that it will take account of Roma issues in its own decision making, and use of the resources that IT CONTROL'S.

The Commission notes that about €26.5 billion is made available to MEMBER STATES through the Structural Funds and EAFRD and that member states make limited use of these resources.

The Commission further identifies that it will monitor the use of these funds by the member states and that they will report annually to both the Commission and Council. The Commission is requesting the member states to identify SPECIFICALLY to the Commission and Council how the Structural Funds and EARFD benefit Roma, and provide ADDITIONALITY to national initiatives.

The Commission also notes that about 4 per cent of the Structural Funds and EAFRD are made available to member states for programme assistance and these funds are underspent. The immediate questions are: what are national Roma organisations doing to ensure that the European funds are monitored to identify concrete benefits are being delivered to ROMA.. what statistics are national bodies collecting, are these being collected in a standardised way. The gypsy site grant made available in UK is a very good example of where at least one member state will have difficulty in identifying any additionality has been obtained, despite a specific initiative being in existence.

The Commission also has a role in research and standardisation. These efforts are intended to support establishment of a single European market in goods and services. Opportunities to develop goods and services that take better account of Roma can be accessed through calls for proposals by any legal entity.

Commissioner Reading as the former Commissioner for R&D should have been aware of the systems available to engage the Commissioners own instruments, and the Commission should have identified to the EU it's intention to lead by example.

It is.

"... the Framework falls far short of fully tackling the challenges of Roma exclusion, which are intimately linked to widespread hostility and discrimination against the Roma people ... while the Framework recognizes the need to fight discrimination against Roma and ensure their equal access to all fundamental rights, it fails to specify measures to combat discrimination, intimidation, anti-Gypsyism, hate speech or violence against Roma. In this respect, the Framework is far from fulfilling last month s recommendations of the European Parliament." - Communication of The European Roma Policy Coalition (ERPC).

However it may be best to give it the benefit of the doubt. We obviously don't yet know how effective it is as it has not yet been implemented. A lot then depends on how it turns out to be implemented in practice and whether changes can be made at a later date.