One-size-fits-all Roma?: On the normative dilemmas of the emerging European Roma policy

The article discusses three moral and political dilemmas that arise in the context of the emerging European Roma policy, and on which all concerned parties, including grassroots Romani organisations, should be able to express their views. The first dilemma is whether anti-discrimination measures based on universal individual rights are sufficient to promote the social inclusion of Roma, or whether policies based on group-differentiated minority rights are required to ensure the exercise of their fundamental human rights. Even though there appears to be a consensus on the insufficiency of the former approach, it is unclear exactly what kinds of minority rights should be promoted, which leads us to the second dilemma: generic versus targeted minority rights. The third dilemma is whether to recognise Roma as a national minority or as a non-territorial nation. The article argues that the notion of non-territorial nation can be debated on anthropological, political and moral grounds.