Contentious Politics in Europe: Experiences of Desegregation Policy in Hungary and the Push for an EU-Level Strategy on Romani Integration

Abstract

Since 2004, Viktória Mohácsi has been a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) with the ALDE group (Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe), representing the Hungarian Liberal party SZDSZ (Szabad Demokraták Szövetsége [Alliance of Free Democrats]), thereby becoming one of the first (and youngest) Romani MEPs in the history of Europe.² She serves as a member of the committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs as well as being a delegate to the EU-Croatia Joint Parliamentary Committee. In 2008, she was appointed to be the chairperson for the UN Forum on Minority Issues (UNFMI), and since 2004, has been a co-chair for the board of the European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC). From 2002 to 2004, she was Ministerial Commissioner for the Integration of Disadvantaged and Romani Children at the Hungarian Ministry of Education, and conducted both research and advocacy work in several domestic and international projects vis-à-vis Romani issues including with the World Bank and the Soros Foundation. She has worked actively in the area of educational desegregation for Romani children in Hungary³ Her term as an MEP ends in July 2009 after the upcoming June elections for the European Parliament. In the following interview, she reflects on her experiences working in Hungary for the NGO sector, as well as being a government minister responsible for Romani children’s integration within the school system, and then connects them to her current work within the EP.

Held in her offices in Brussels at the European Parliament on 15 September 2008.