Civil society monitoring report on implementation of the national Roma integration strategies in Denmark: Focusing on structural and horizontal preconditions for successful implementation of the strategy

This report monitors the Danish approach to Roma inclusion in response to the EU Framework for National Roma Integration Strategies up to 2020. Denmark’s National Roma Integration Strategy is a set of integrated policy measures that do not include Romatargeted initiatives, but rather states that Roma are included within general integration initiatives. Consequently, there are no specific initiatives or specific funding opportunities for Roma at governmental or municipal level. Roma inclusion is not mainstreamed as a specific issue across the ministries and there are no Roma-targeted initiatives concerning anti-discrimination (including addressing antigypsyism). This report recommends the design of specific initiatives for Roma inclusion as well as the allocation of specific budgets for Roma-targeted activities. The report particularly recommends initiatives regarding data collection on the situation of the national Roma population in Denmark. The report provides examples of antigypsyist rhetoric against EU citizens of Roma origin by Danish politicians in debates preceding the processes of amendments to the national legal framework. It illustrates how legislative amendments in the year 2017 that concern prohibition of camping in public spaces, as well as enhanced penalties for begging activities in certain areas, particularly target foreign nationals, and how Romanian nationals comprise the vast majority of those who are arrested on the grounds of this revised legislation. The report concludes by recommending an independent examination of current practices of implementing Danish law enforcement in Denmark to evaluate whether ethnic profiling is taking place of Romanian nationals and of Romanian Roma in particular is happening. Furthermore, the report encourages a critical examination of whether and how the current implementation of the revised national legislation and related practices are in line with domestic and EU legislation (including EU Directive 2004/38/EC).