Following the introduction under Articles 136 and 137 of the Amsterdam Treaty of the fight against social exclusion among the social policy provisions, the European Parliament and the Council agreed on the establishment of a five year programme of Community action to encourage co-operation between Member States to combat social exclusion to run between 2002 and end 2006. The Community action programme is intended as a key tool to support and advance the implementation of the Open Method of Co-ordination on poverty and social inclusion (OMC), established by the Lisbon European Council in March 2000. It is meant to contribute to this goal in three essential ways: first, by improving the understanding of social exclusion and poverty; secondly, by organising exchanges on policies and promoting mutual learning in the context of national action plans; and, thirdly, by developing the capacity of actors to address social exclusion and poverty effectively, and to promote innovative approaches.

The ROMAin project was approved by the European Commission in the “Second Transnational Exchange Programme” of this Community Action Programme. The project consists of two central objectives; the first is to promote the social inclusion of Roma in Europe based on successful experiences. The second is innovation through transnational cooperation in regards to the design and application of social inclusion policies with Roma. The ROMAin Project is formed by a multicultural team, both Roma and non-Roma from different European Community and European Candidate countries, including Spain, Finland, Rumania and Belgium.

The project includes the participation of Roma from different educational levels, social conditions and gender, whether through the projects personnel themselves, as well as through the participation of Roma through other instruments that are created in the in the project to increase this participation, including: the Advisory Council, which is formed entirely by Roma men and women. The European Roma Inclusion Network is also aimed towards both Roma and non-Roma formal (associations, foundations, study centres, Roma institutions) and non-formal groups and individuals.

We believe that one way to achieve success in social interventions that work towards the inclusion of Roma is to have an overall perspective of what has been carried out at different levels (administrations, policies, NGO’s), and to analyse what has worked in increasing the inclusion of Roma and what can be improved upon. The purpose foreseen of the project is to be able to reduce the social exclusion of Roma in Europe through putting into practice quality criteria and good practice based on the success of the intervention. These good practices need to be taken into account both in the design as well as in the application and evaluation of these actions, experiences and policies.

The general objectives of the project are:
1. To promote the social inclusion of Roma in Europe, based on successful practices.
2. To innovate in the design and the application of policies of social inclusion by means of
transnational cooperation.

The specific objectives are:
1. To look for, identify, analyse and disseminate policies on Roma at a European level.
2. To identify successful practices and methodologies for social intervention in
multicultural societies and with Roma.
3. To exchange practices and experiences and to debate Roma inclusion policies.
4. To disseminate the results, products and work processes.
5. To evaluate and to monitor the activities and outputs of the different stages of the project.