Despite the Commission’s efforts to fight discrimination, racism and xenophobia, in many Member States, especially those with the largest Roma communities and which have been strongly hit by the economic crisis, anti-Gypsyism, far right demonstrations, hate speech and hate crime have been on the rise.
Politicians and public authorities often failed to publicly condemn such negative trends.
In other Member States heated debates on free movement and social rights contributed to negative stereotyping of Roma.
As a result, in several Member States majorities hold unfavourable views of Roma (IT: 85 %, FR: 66 %, EL: 53 %, UK: 50 %).
In some cases, targeted actions to support Roma have further increased distrust between Roma and mainstream society, which shows a lack of effective awareness-raising on the mutual benefits of Roma integration.
