A Means to an End or an End in Itself? EU Roma Policy, Human Rights and the Economic Investment Myth

Abstract

AbstractThe Roma face a dire socio‐economic situation and structural discrimination across Europe. To address the challenges experienced by this community, the EU adopted a specific EU Roma policy – the ‘EU Framework for National Roma Integration Strategies’ (2011) – which, together with EU funds, supports Member States with integration of the Roma at the national level. This article argues that the economic framing of the EU Roma policy is underpinned by an economic investment myth: namely, that the EU can only address rights violations as a means to achieving the EU's economic ends. It is shown that this myth undermines the EU's legal and constitutional human rights commitments post‐Lisbon, according to which the EU has now the legal capability – but lacks the political will – to tackle rights violations such as discrimination in a manner that is not linked to the functioning of the common market.