Post-communist legal orders and the Roma: Some implications for EU enlargement

Abstract

The ousting of communist regimes across Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), in 1989-1990, is frequently portrayed as the triumph of popular democracy, human rights and market economics. However, for the bulk of an estimated six million Roma, or Gypsies, constituting by far the largest ethnic minority in the region, the post-communist era has brought neither improved living standards nor the genuine enjoyment of democracy or basic freedoms. On the contrary, Roma poverty has worsened dramatically during the transition from communism. As a recent World Bank report notes: "[w]hile Roma have historically been among the poorest people in Europe, the extent of the collapse of their living conditions in the former socialist countries is unprecedented." At the same time, the incidence of anti-Roma assaults (and of Roma stereotyping by opportunistic politicians and by elements in the media) has risen sharply, particularly in the early to mid 1990s. According to a broad range of inter-governmental organisations and human rights NGOs, the new era of democracy and of supposed economic opportunity in the CEE states has been characterised by the partial exclusion-economic, social and political-of the mass of the region's Roma. The European Union has an obvious interest in the predicament of the Roma people of Central and Eastern Europe. The process of eastward enlargement of the EU means that the Roma 'problem' has ceased to be a largely external affair. If transitional arrangements had not been introduced by existing EU members, severely limiting the potential flow of job seekers from the accession states for an interim period, the chronic economic and social marginalization of the Roma in the CEE region might have triggered waves of Roma migration, particularly from the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary, to more prosperous and apparently liberal countries in Western Europe. The eventual admission of a further tier of CEE states to the EU, Romania and Bulgaria-each of which has a substantial and mostly impoverished Roma minority-will result in an enormous additional pool of potential Romani migrants to the West. At the very least, as emphasised in a recent World Bank report, the failure to address the economic, social and political exclusion of the Roma in the CEE countries will pose a serious challenge to sustained economic growth and to the consolidation of democracy and respect for human rights in the region. Put simply, a large and expanding 'underclass' of semi-destitute, poorly educated and alienated Roma is likely to prove a massive economic burden on the CEE states, while also straining inter-communal tensions in these societies. These are important and obvious concerns for the EU, whether in terms of its economic objectives or its more recent commitment to the recognition and protection of human rights. Beginning with a case-study of a Transylvanian village which has a mixed population of ethnic Romanians, ethnic Hungarians and Roma, this chapter goes on to examine the nature and extent of the problems confronting the Roma of the CEE region in the transition from communism. The chapter further considers some of the causes of the chronic difficulties experienced by the Roma since the collapse of state socialism. It should not be assumed that the plight of this minority can be ascribed solely to racism and to anti-Roma discrimination in the countries concerned, even though the continuing importance of these factors should not be discounted. In Part IV of this chapter, I review the efforts of the EU to monitor the situation of the Roma in post-communist states and to address some of the underlying problems. © 2006 Springer.