European Influence on Rights to Education of Roma in the Czech Republic

In the European Union a new treaty has been introduced in December 2009. This treaty wants Europe to be a Europe of values. To that purpose it declares the existing Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union to be an obligatory treaty. Article 14 of this Charter promotes for everyone the right to education and to have access to vocational and continuing training. The aim of the paper is to scrutinize the situation of Roma education in the Czech Republic and investigate the role of European institutions in the policy-making process of the Czech Republic. In order to do this, the past and present Czech policies on Roma integration will be examined and compared to the European policy framework while emphasizing the rights of Roma in the European Union. Case law of the Court of Justices should demonstrate the attitude of the Czech Republic violating the right to quality education of the Romani children. This paper will assess the outcomes of the Court’s decision and it also aims to show to what extent the external bodies such as the European Union or the Council of Europe influence the decisions made by the Czech government. Next, this paper will sum up the improvements of Roma education and point out to the still persistent problems. Lastly, there will be looked at the extent to which the education policies of the Czech Republic are compatible with the EU strategy on Roma inclusion.