Mr. Zeljko Jovanovic is director of the Roma Initiatives Office (RIO), which aims to strengthen the voices and leadership of Roma with respect to improving public policies and services in Europe. In the past few months, he has been actively advocating for the creation of a European Roma Institute, along with Roma artists, intellectuals, academics and activists. We took the opportunity to reach out to Mr. Jovanovic on the latest developments in the field.
Q: In your co-authored article with Romani Rose in the Frankfurter Rundschau, you state that Jews and Muslims fear wearing signs of their religious identity in today’s Europe. However, Jewish and Muslim communities have their synagogues and mosques in almost every European capital. Do you think that Roma also need cultural spaces that can support their identity in these turbulent times of fear and insecurity?
A: Yes, and this is the principle that underlies the project of the European Roma Institute (ERI). ERI will be a space where Roma people, along with artists, media and cultural producers, can explore, imagine, create and express the talent, achievements and cultural contribution of Roma to Europe. The ERI idea has a lot of potential, but it will take hard work, conviction and dedication to make it deliver on its promise. Although I don’t usually use the examples of existing institutions – such as Alliance Française, Goethe Institute, British Council, institutes of Jewish or African culture – to illustrate what the ERI idea could be about, I believe that we can do something even better than these institutions precisely because of the creative capacity of our community that enjoys exchanges with many other cultures across Europe.
Q: One of the announced goals of the European Roma Institute is to fight anti-Gypsyism. Over the last years, various institutions such as the European Commission, OSCE, the Council of Europe, European Roma and Travellers Forum have issued a number of declarations condemning anti-Gypsyism without clear implications for Roma. How can ERI, in your opinion, break this vicious circle?
A: Anti-Gypsyism must be eradicated by every possible means, and everywhere. Public communication campaigns, litigation in domestic and international courts, academic and policy research, training for activists and social media, education projects, and training for police officers are only some of the different ways to achieve that goal. The work of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the Council of Europe and the European Court for Human Rights, the European Commission through infringement proceedings as well as civil society organizations such as the European Roma Rights Centre, Equal Opportunities from Bulgaria, Romani Criss from Romania, Chance for Children from Hungary and hundreds of organizations and individuals have been bringing important contributions to this goal. The European Roma Institute proposes to combat anti-Gypsyism through the arts, culture and media. Many of the organizations have done that at the local or the national level. However, the rising scale of hatred and politically potent negative stereotypes make us realize that we need to raise these efforts to a higher scale and build ERI as a hub for many small organizations, initiatives and creative people.
Q: It is expected that the European Roma Institute will also act as a policy advisor to the Council of Europe and the member states. The chair of ERTF has recently expressed concerns that ERI can cause a shift of the focus from the political discourse to the cultural issues. Do you think that there are grounds for such assertions?
A: It is proposed that ERI should have three functions: as a creative hub, ERI will support the exchange of existing and creative new ideas and materials across cultural borders, cultural domains and Romani identities, in order to document the historical experience of Romani people in Europe. As a communicator and public educator, ERI will disseminate positive messages and images and knowledge about Romani people, and will use public spaces for dialogue, such as schools, museums, theaters and media. As a policy advisor ERI will provide expert advice in its areas of competence, when required by the Council of Europe, its member states and other partners. The policy advisor function of ERI will be activated only and when the Council of Europe or particular member state ask for ERI’s advice. This is reactive, not mandatory. ERI certainly cannot impose any policy advisor function by ERI members onto the Council’s staff, nor can or will it do so with member states. In my opinion, among the three functions proposed for ERI, the creative hub and public communicator functions are the prime ones. Let us differentiate on what the focus should be in general from what is a focus of one single organization which still does not exist. ERI initiative addresses a very specific way of breaking the negative stereotype. I agree completely that not only political discourse but political responsibility and action can produce tangible results for the Roma. I understand the statements of the former president of ERTF, a network of NGOs, in the context of his uncertainty about the status and funds of ERTF from the Council of Europe. These are not concerns about the European Roma Institute. Even if they seem to be about the ERI at a very superficial level, they are speculative. However, as the former president, this counts as his personal opinion which I respect even if I disagree. The new leadership of ERTF still has not issued any negative opinion about the ERI as far as I know. Today, prejudice against Roma shapes political discourse, policy preferences and political action. This is the root of the problem Europe faces. The ERI proposes a vision that in due time, will be a place of new narratives and images about the Roma and a space to build up a common ground between Roma and majority populations in European countries.
Q: It has been announced that the Open Society Foundations and the Council of Europe will jointly support the European Roma Institute. What distribution of responsibilities between the Open Society Foundations and the Council of Europe would best achieve the objectives of the ERI?
A: The Open Society Foundations have been an active supporter of Roma in the last two decades. There is no larger and more active supporter of Roma in Europe and in the world. We have many reasons to be proud of our achievements and lessons learned. Therefore, our role is to help the European Roma Institute be established and contribute to its financial stability to help it take off. The Open Society Foundations support the idea of a European Roma Institute with the belief that having Roma present the image of who they are and who they are not is the best way to break prejudices and stereotypes. We want to see the Roma as the main agents of change, leading at the forefront of the Institute and working together with many contributors from different origins and backgrounds.
Q: According to some scholars, the European Roma Institute may pose a threat to free academic research on Roma. In fact, Romani studies are often seen as a relatively ‘easy’ research field. They attract wide ranges of people, but the number of Roma researchers in this area is very small. What is your answer to the criticism coming from those academic circles?
A: Academic researchers and institutions can be of great help to the European Roma Institute. Scholars have plurality of views in general and about ERI in particular. ERI has a lot of support among the academics and researchers, some of them are the most active supporters of ERI. Few critics are actually very helpful. We recently launched a public consultation to hear the views of individuals and organizations interested in the project of the European Roma Institute. Almost every day we receive new messages of support from the Roma organizations, informal groups, individuals. This is a good way for us to evaluate the support we have, and to respond to the critics we receive. ERI is not proposed to be an academic research institution. At the same time, Europe is a place where everybody has freedom to research and no one can be stopped to do it. Everybody can scrutinize and be scrutinized. The quality of research and scrutiny will speak about their merits. The same stands for ERI or any other institution, organization or person. However, if we are serious people and look at the big picture, we can easily see that ERI is not a threat for academia and neither is academia a threat for ERI. They cannot be threats or enemies to each other by default. Our real enemy is the oppression that chains Roma people culturally, economically and politically. We should be looking at and trying to defeat the real enemy.
Q: In his last article, the well-known activist Mr. Grattan Puxon argued that the Roma movement is vulnerable to hijack and usurpation. Do you think that Roma are, indeed, an easy ‘prey’?
A: Roma people are getting more confident, courageous, creative and better organized. My standpoint is based on where we started, what we face and what means we use. The history of our political self-organization is measured by decades while the history of our oppression is measured by centuries. Nobody suffers to the degree we suffer. We have not used violence or destruction to attain our goals as other groups sometimes have. We use creative power to survive and thrive despite an oppression that no other Europeans face today. We, Roma, are true Europeans. Other European nations needed to build the supra national structure of the European Union to prevent killing each other. After only 60 years, we see the fragility of that structure and the peace. Roma have lived in peace for centuries in Europe without killing anyone for our own goals. This is not a weakness or vulnerability. This is resilience and wisdom. It seems to me that many should learn from us.
Zeljko Jovanovic can be followed on Twitter
