European Commission takes Slovakia to the EU Court of Justice over Romani children's segregation in the schools

Slovakia has undertaken a lot of legislative reforms and attempted to include Romani pupils, but is not making enough progress, according to an EC statement released today. According to Slovak Prime Minister Eduard Heger, many administrations have been engaged in practical solutions to the problem.

“The EU rules on racial equality (Directive 2000/43/EC) strictly prohibit discrimination on grounds of ethnic origin in key areas of life, including education. In Slovakia, however, Roma children are often placed in special schools for pupils with mild mental disabilities. Many Roma children who attend mainstream education are also segregated, in separate classes or schools,” the EC statement said today.

In 2015, the EC launched an infringement proceeding against Slovakia over the issue, and in 2019 they sent the Government their reasoned opinion about it. “Since then, Slovakia has undertaken a series of legislative reforms and adopted several strategies and action plans to foster Roma inclusion in education. However, after carefully assessing those measures and monitoring the situation on the ground, the Commission concluded that the reforms undertaken so far are insufficient,” the EC said.

“This is a consequence of the fact that nothing has been done with this for years. This is a problem that has persisted since the Slovak Republic began. The problem is here and we are intensively working on it,” Heger told journalists, adding that he believes it will take another 10 or 20 years for the practical solution to this issue to make any more significant progress.

“Just like other ministers of the current Government, Gröhling and Horecký have done absolutely nothing, even though they had precise instructions in the Government’s programme statement on what to do,” Slovak MEP Peter Pollák said of the lawsuit. “I ask the current Education Minister to finally find the courage not to put Slovakia in the position of paying huge fines for its inaction or misconduct. I ask him to implement the Government’s programme statement. I would start by introducing compulsory pre-school education for children from families who are unable to prepare them for school, at least from the age of three.”

The EC’s opinion was also confirmed recently by research undertaken by the EU Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA): In Slovakia, 65 % of Romani children between the ages of six and 15 attend schools where all of the pupils or most of them are Romani, 5 % more than in 2016. Slovakia has thus become the EU Member State with the highest level of Romani segregation in education.