Is the EU failing the Roma?  

23. april 2026 by Marcus

On paper, Europe’s minorities are well protected. In practice, the EU’s largest minority – the 8 million Roma – continue to face discrimination and weak national implementation of EU policy. 

Why is progress so limited? And what actually works? Join our transnational online debate, where we explore these questions through two contrasting cases: Bulgaria and Denmark. 

The EU Charter and a handful of directives guarantee minority rights and are meant to prevent discrimination. In practice, however, member states interpret these rules very differently. A shared experience across borders is that Roma face discrimination and that national authorities make insufficient efforts to combat it.  

In member states such as Bulgaria, Roma constitute a significant share – between 10% – 15% – of the population. In Bulgaria, the minority’s challenges consist of a complex mix of social and educational difficulties, compounded by severe discrimination from the surrounding society, making it hard for them to establish themselves in the labor market. As a result, many Bulgarian Roma emigrate and often integrate successfully in other EU member states.  

While the number of Roma living in Denmark is lower – estimated at around 5.500 – it is steadily increasing. In recent years, Denmark has come under criticism: in 2023, a report from the Danish Institute for Human Rights described Denmark’s efforts as among the “most vague and unambitious” in the EU. As a consequence the Danish efforts in the are sparse, less organised and without a structured aim and rarely succeed in combating the stigmatization on a larger scale.

What can we learn from these different approaches, are there any recent experiences that show positive results, and could they contribute to future work in the field? 

Join the debate and be part of the discussion on how Europe can better protect its largest minority. 

Marcus Popov

DEO