"Here, the walls are mouldy, and from time to time there are rats and cockroaches," says Józsefné Láda. "The area is unsafe, we don't let our children play outside alone." She wakes up every morning to care for her family of eight. They moved into a two-room EU-funded house in Huszártelep, one of Hungary's largest Roma settlements. But if given the choice, they would return to the Keleti slum, where they once lived, without running water. That slum, however, is now gone.
Similar EU-backed housing initiatives, where the EU has allocated over €61 billion for Roma inclusion in Italy, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic and Hungary, have left Roma families in segregated conditions. "There are no clear financial guidelines that ensure these funds directly benefit Roma communities. There is a lack of transparent monitoring," says Isabela Mihalache, Senior Advocacy Officer at the ERGO Network. The European Court of Auditors has raised concerns over the mismanagement of EU funds for Roma integration, but there is no accountability.
"If EU funds are meant to provide inclusive housing for Roma, why are we still forced to live in isolation on the outskirts or in filthy dormitories?" says Tomaš*, a Roma resident, who is among the 250,000 Roma compelled to live in what the state calls "socially excluded localities" in the Czech Republic with a lack of access to basic facilities.
In Calabria, Italy, €8 million was earmarked by the EU for the eviction and demolition of a Roma camp: "They have not asked our views or included us in the project management," said Pamela Bevilacqua, Roma activist. In Bulgaria, the Interior Ministry used €1.7 million to train 480 police officers to detect alleged "radicalisation" in Roma neighbourhoods.
The investigation found that in each of these countries, the EU had either awarded money to projects that contributed to worsening conditions for Roma people - through increased marginalisation and anti-tziganistic policies - or the funds had not benefited Roma communities on the ground at all. The team identified three recurring cross-border patterns: a systemic lack of monitoring, no involvement of Roma communities in decision-making and evaluation, and an absence of accountability in the utilisation of EU funds at the local, national, and EU-wide levels.
* Some names have been changed to protect interviewees’ privacy.
