McGill Journal of Political Studies 2014 April, 2014 | Page 80

and justification of the variables used. An
analysis of collected data, comparing the two
case studies from pre-accession and postaccession, will determine potential responses
to the stated research question. Then, the
aforementioned theoretical frameworks will
be evaluated for their explanatory potential
in accounting for the results of this analysis.
Finally, the conclusion will summarize
the results of the data and conclude as to
whether or not the paper’s hypothesis is
supported by the available data.
Literature Review
This paper will divide the available data
into two categories: pre-accession and postaccession. For pre-accession information on
the Roma, the United Nations Development
Programme (UNDP) collected a large
amount of data on the status of Roma
inclusion in 2003, compiled in its report
entitled Avoiding the Dependency Trap5.
This provides a baseline for any discussion
of post-accession changes in their status. For
post-accession data, reports from the EC, the
European Union Agency for Fundamental
Rights (EU-FRA), and NGOs such as the
European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC) are
important sources. However, the wide variety
of metrics used, small sample sizes, and the
inherent problems in studying the Roma
make most data not entirely reliable. Many
Roma do not publicly identify themselves
as such, states make few efforts to reach
out, and many Roma distrust outsiders due
to their history of persecution and refuse
to participate in data collection. Reports
also often lack methodological consistency
across time, space and organization, making
it difficult to measure all areas of Roma life
in relation to social inclusion.
The body of literature relating to
the treatment of Roma in policy is also
important. This can further be divided
UNDP (2003) Avoiding the Dependency Trap.
[report] Bratislava: United Nations Development
Programme.
5

80 | McGill Journal of Political Studies 2014

into literature addressing both the Roma
specifically and the Roma as part of the
broader discourse on human rights and
non-discrimination. This literature includes
current law at the EU-level. In current
legislation, like the acquis communautaire
-the common body of law for the EU- the
Roma are not specifically addressed; instead,
they fall under standard anti-discrimination
law as citizens or residents of the countries
they reside in. The most important legal
institution covering the Roma in terms of
European law is the European Convention
on Human Rights (1961). Along with the
Racial Equality Directive (2000), this has
been used by the Roma, with the doctrine
of direct effect, to fight for equal treatment
at the European level. Marc Willers and
Siobhan Lloyd wrote a two-part paper
discussing potential paths for Roma to use
such EU legal institutions to expand their
rights advocating fighting through the
courts rather than through the legislative
process6. This paper will also investigate
the national laws relating to treatment of
minorities, such as a number of National
Action Plans issued at the start of the
“Decade of Roma Inclusion,” plotting out
countries’ official plans for addressing issues
of Roma inclusion.
In order to answer how and why
European policy towards Roma has
changed, this paper will use a few relevant
theories as tools of analysis and explore
the quantitative data behind the research
question’s test variables. The theoretical
framework of conditionality, defined as
“a bargaining strategy of reinforcement
by reward, under which the EU provides
external incentives for a target government
to comply with its conditions” will be used7.
Marc Willers, and Siobhán Lloyd, “Using EU law
to tackle anti-Roma discrimination – Part 1,” Legal
Action (November 2011): 21-6; Marc Willers, and
Siobhán Lloyd, “Using EU law to tackle anti-Roma
discrimination – Part w,” Legal Action (December
2011): 33-7
7
Schimmelfennig, F. and Sedelmeier, U. (2004)
Governance by conditionality: EU rule transfer to the
6

As conditionality is one of the two primary
theories explaining why candidate states
choose to expend political capital in order
to change domestic law to match EU law,
it will be an important tool of analysis.
Specifically, Tobias Böhmelt’s work will be
used to examine the effect of conditionality
in European accession in terms of policies
of Roma inclusion. Böhmelt concludes
that while making accession conditional
on the implementation of particular policy
and legal changes gives the EU substantial
leverage, conditionality’s power fades as
accession occurs or appears as a foregone
conclusion. This will help explain the success
or failure of the EU in guaranteeing Roma
social inclusion and pushing for beneficial
policy8.
In addition, the potential effects of the
European principle of subsidiarity in the area
of social policy will be used as a comparative
tool. Subsidiarity is a central part of the
European Union’s decision-making process
and core identity. As defined in Article 5 of
the Treaty on European Union:
Under the principle of subsidiarity, in
areas which do not fall within its exclusive
competence, the Union shall act only if and
insofar as the objectives of the proposed
action cannot be sufficiently achieved by the
Member States, either at central level or at
regional and local level, but can rather, by
reason of the scale or e