Statelessness Working Paper Series 2016/03 Another proposal is to adopt a specific EU Directive on stateless Roma. In 2004, the EU Network of Experts in Fundamental Rights called on the European institutions to develop a binding legal instrument for MS in the area of Roma integration, or in other words a Roma Integration Directive. 46 Indeed, the experts considered that the scope of the Directive 2000/43/EC (‘Racial Equality Directive’)47 was too limited for the needs of the Roma and that [t]heir exclusion from a number of public services and essential social goods is the result of their precarious administrative situation, their statelessness and, worst of all, the total lack of administrative documents attesting their legal status”.48 A directive on stateless Roma could be adopted on the ground of Article 2 of TEU “[t]he Union is founded on the values of respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and respect for human rights, including the rights of persons belonging to minorities. These values are common to the Member States in a society in which pluralism, non-discrimination, tolerance, justice, solidarity and equality between women and men prevail.” It also says further that the Union “shall combat social exclusion and discrimination, and shall promote social justice and protection”. Such a specific directive would require MS to provide access to documentation for Roma who do not have proof of their possession of a nationality. Parra argues that such a directive would have the advantages of neither asking MS to recognize a nation within their nation, nor requiring an improbable restructuring of the political nature of EU citizenship. She also points out that a directive dedicated to the sole issue of statelessness would be more productive than a general directive on numerous Roma issues or Roma ‘integration’.49 In April 2011, the EU Council adopted conclusions establishing the EU Framework for National Roma Integration strategies, aiming at closing the gap between Roma and non-Roma in access to education, employment, healthcare and housing. Although MS have to provide annual reports to the European Parliament and Council for assessment of progress made until 2020, this non-binding mechanism certainly does not have the same impact and direct effect as a Directive. Other proposals have been raised to solve the issue of impeded access to EU citizenship. The European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC) legal director Adam Weiss is convinced of the beneficial powers of strategic litigation, not only in front of the CJEU, but also before the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). Indeed, all MS as well as all WBC adhered to the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR) and by doing so accepted the ECtHR’s supranational jurisdiction. Weiss notably gives the example of some Roma who left Yugoslavia for Italy in the 1990s and became stateless because they could not secure residence permits at the time, and therefore could not naturalise. According to him, the case could be brought to court, arguing that there is a breach of Article 8 ECHR. Indeed, in Genovese v Malta,50 the ECtHR stated that “even in the absence of family life, the denial of citizenship may raise an issue under Article 8 because of its impact on the private life of an individual, which concept is wide enough to embrace aspects of a person’s social identity”. 51 Progress in solving Romani statelessness may therefore come from the slow but sure development of national as well as supranational jurisprudence. 46 See the ‘Report on the Situation of Fundamental Rights in the European Union for 2003’ at <http://ec.europa.eu/justice/fundamental-rights/files/cfr_cdf_synthesisrep2003_en.pdf> accessed 1st March 2016 47 Council Directive 2000/43/EC implementing the principle of equal treatment between persons irrespective of racial or ethnic origin, 29 June 2000 <http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:32000L0043:en:HTML> accessed 1st March 2016 48 See more on the ERRC’s website <www.errc.org/article/eu-experts-reccomend-directive-on-roma-integration--europeanunion-network-of-experts-in-fundamental-rights-calls-for-roma-integration-directive/1921> accessed 1st March 2016 49 Jessica Parra, ‘Stateless Roma in the European Union: Reconciling the Doctrine of Sovereignty Concerning Nationality Laws with International Agreements to Reduce and Avoid Statelessness’, in Fordham International Law Journal, Volume 34, Issue 6, 2011, pp1688-1692 50 ECtHR, Genovese v. Malta, Applications no. 53124/09, 11 January 2012 (para.33) 51 See the European Network on Statelessness at: <www.statelessness.eu/blog/thoughts-strategic-litigation-can-eu-law-prevent-and-reduce-roma-statelessness-europe> accessed 1st March 2016 6