STATEMENT

OF MR MEVLÜT ÇAVUŞOĞLU

PRESIDENT OF THE PARLIAMENTARY ASSEMBLY

HIGH-LEVEL MEETING ON ROMA

(Strasbourg, Wednesday, 20 October 2010)

Dear Ministers,

Dear Secretary General,

Excellencies,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I would like to congratulate the Council of Europe Secretary General, Mr Jagland, for initiating this meeting, which takes place at the right moment in the right place. Pan-European action on the Roma issue is necessary and our Organisation provides an ideal forum for it.

The Council of Europe has developed a wealth of standards and policy guidelines on the Roma issue. Our Assembly has made a valuable contribution to this process. I am glad to see that our recommendations have been reflected in the draft ”Strasbourg Declaration”. I also welcome co-ordination with other European organisations, especially with the European Union.

That said, while European and international organisations have an important role to play, the main responsibility lies with the member states as education, employment, social inclusion, health services and housing are almost entirely national responsibilities.

In my opinion, the Council of Europe’s role in this process should be:

Ø to facilitate co-ordination of various initiatives; ensure that duplication of efforts is avoided and that synergies are created;

Ø to provide member states with concrete tools and best practice examples, based on the Council of Europe standards and experience and adapted to the national, regional and local particularities.

In this context, I expect this meeting to give full support to the Council of Europe to strengthen the Organisation’s capacity to deal with the Roma issue and provide the necessary support to its member states.

The Assembly is willing and ready to contribute its part to this process.

In our Resolution 1740, adopted last June, the Assembly resolved to propose a co-operation agreement with the European Roma and Travellers Forum. Moreover, we encourage National Parliaments to include Roma representatives in the delegations to the Assembly.

Furthermore, in our urgent debate held earlier this month we strongly condemned as racist and xenophobic, and therefore unacceptable in a democracy, the use of language stigmatising Roma or any other minority or migrant group. We urged member states to strongly endorse in their national law the Council of Europe instruments, standards and policies prohibiting and preventing hate speech and discrimination.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I hope this meeting will trigger concrete and action-oriented initiatives at national and European level, for the benefit of the Roma population of Europe. Thank you very much for your attention.