Based on the decision of the EU member states, as of January 1, 2025, personal checks have been abolished at the internal land border crossings between Bulgaria and Romania, as well as at their common borders.

In light of the abolition of border control between Hungary and Romania, and to gather information on the implementation of related tasks, Dr. Ákos Kozma, the Commissioner for Fundamental Rights of Hungary, conducted visits to the border crossings along the Hungarian-Romanian border between January 15 and 22, 2025, accompanied by Dr. Domonkos Wildner, Director General for Police Complaints at the Office of the Commissioner for Fundamental Rights of Hungary. The Commissioner and his colleagues visited, among others, the border crossing points at Csanádpalota, Gyula, Csengersima, and Ártánd.

At the visited locations, the Commissioner for Fundamental Rights of Hungary and his colleagues held consultations with Brigadier General Dr. Zsolt Polyák, Police Commissioner of the Csongrád-Csanád County Police Headquarters; Brigadier General Ferenc Vörös, Police Commissioner of the Békés County Police Headquarters; Brigadier General József Farkas, Police Commissioner of the Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg County Police Headquarters; Brigadier General Dr. József Gyurosovics, Police Commissioner of the Police of Hajdú-Bihar County Police Headquarters, as well as other senior officials from the respective county police headquarters.

During the visits, the Commissioner for Fundamental Rights of Hungary received information on the implementation of border policing tasks related to Romania's accession to the Schengen area, as well as on the traffic situation affecting the border section.

The images published on www.ajbh.hu are the property of the Office of the Commissioner for Fundamental Rights. All rights reserved.

In Dobbin im Naturpark „Nossentiner/Schwinzer Heide“ ist eine Fischaufstiegsanlage, eine sog. Fischtreppe, geplant, um die ökologische Durchwanderbarkeit der Nebel sicherzustellen. Die Fischtreppe soll das Wehr ersetzen, das zwischen dem Mühlenteich und der Nebel liegt und ein Wanderhindernis für die Fische darstellt. Im Laufe der Planungen wurden mehrere Varianten untersucht. Letztlich hat sich das Staatliche Amt für Landwirtschaft und Umwelt (StALU MM) für die Variante entschieden, mit der die Trockenlegung des dortigen Mühlenteiches verbunden ist.

Dagegen wendet sich eine Petentin, die von weiteren Anwohnern unterstützt wird. Sie argumentiert, dass der seit 450 Jahren bestehende Mühlenteich ein wertvolles Biotop ist und zusammen mit der anliegenden Mühle ein schützenswertes Denkmalensemble bildet. Sie befürchtet mit der Baumaßnahme in dieser Größenordnung negative Auswirkungen auf die Ökosysteme in diesem Gebiet. Die natur- und denkmalschutzrechtlichen Aspekte seien bei der Planung der Fischtreppe zu wenig beachtet worden, so die Petentin.

Im September hat der Petitionsausschuss hierzu einen Ortstermin durchgeführt. Da Fragen offengeblieben sind und Zweifel bestehen, ob der Rückbau des Mühlenteiches tatsächlich alternativlos ist, will er das Vorhaben nunmehr mit Sachverständigen erörtern. An der Beratung nehmen auch die Petentin sowie das StALU MM und das Landwirtschaftsministerium teil.

Die Sitzung, für die der Ausschuss die Öffentlichkeit hergestellt hat, findet am Mittwoch, dem 26.02.2025, um 9.00 Uhr im Schloss Schwerin, Konferenzraum 349.2 statt. Besucher werden gebeten, sich vorher telefonisch im Ausschusssekretariat unter der Telefonnummer 0385-5251514 anzumelden.

News - Date Tuesday | 25 February 2025
Case 1418/2023/VS - Opened on Tuesday | 07 November 2023 - Decision on Friday | 21 February 2025 - Institution concerned European Commission ( No further inquiries justified ) - Country Greece

• Complaint submitted

  24/07/2023

• Analysis of the complaint

  27/07/2023

• Inquiry ongoing

  07/11/2023

• Inquiry outcome

  21/02/2025

The Ombudsman has made a series of suggestions to the European Commission to help it monitor EU funds granted to Member States for border management and ensure their use does not result in fundamental rights violations.

In particular, she suggested the Commission create guidelines for assessing compliance by Member States with fundamental rights throughout the entire duration of funding programmes. These guidelines should include the need to take into account independent sources of information on potential rights violations and establish public criteria for withholding or suspending EU funding.

The Ombudsman’s inquiry into this issue follows a complaint from several non-governmental organisations who had raised concerns that the Commission has failed to effectively monitor EU-funded border management activities in the face of persistent allegations of human rights violations by the Greek authorities.

In its assessment of complaints received about fundamental rights violations and parts of the Greek programme, the Ombudsman asked the Commission to consider whether Greece continues to fulfil the fundamental rights condition related to the funds.

The Ombudsman also made suggestions to the Commission for improving the transparency of the monitoring process and asked it to urge Greece to facilitate the meaningful participation of civil society organisations in monitoring compliance with fundamental rights.

Probleme beim Bürgergeld, wie zum Beispiel mit der Übernahme der Kosten für Miete oder Heizung, mit der Hilfe zum Lebensunterhalt, dem Wohngeld oder auch mit Leistungen der Krankenkassen oder Schwierigkeiten beim Kindergeld – die Bürgerbeauftragte für soziale Angelegenheiten des Landes Schleswig-Holstein, Samiah El Samadoni, hilft bei allen Fragen rund um das Sozialrecht. Darüber hinaus berät die Bürgerbeauftragte auch als Leiterin der Antidiskriminierungsstelle des Landes und als Ombudsperson in der Kinder- und Jugendhilfe im Rahmen dieser Sprechstunde. Zudem ist die Bürgerbeauftragte auch Beauftragte für die Landespolizei und damit Ansprechpartnerin für Beschwerden von Bürger*innen und Eingaben von Polizist*innen.

(...)

On January 29, 2025, the association Sidro organized the roundtable “Education – a Right, Not a Privilege” at the Journalists’ Hall, focusing on the system of early childhood and preschool education. Deputy Ombudswoman Dijana Kesonja participated in the event.

In her presentation, Deputy Kesonja spoke about the right to education and the challenges faced by marginalized groups, particularly Roma children. She emphasized that, as the national equality body, for a long time now the Ombudswoman has been highlighting the issue of Roma children’s segregation in education.

The European Court of Human Rights addressed this issue in Croatia as early as 2012 in the case of Oršuš v. Croatia. To gather data on the segregation of Roma children in primary schools, the Ombudswoman reached out to schools attended by Roma students in 2023, 11 years after the ruling. The data revealed that, in the 2022/2023 school year, out of 24 schools from various parts of Croatia attended by Roma students, 11 had established 80 completely ethnically segregated classes, attended by 950 Roma children. Among all Roma students in these 24 schools, every third child (36%) was educated in fully segregated classes, while every second child (54%) attended classes where more than two-thirds (70%) of students were Roma.

Deputy Kesonja stressed that the necessity of integration is evident from the better academic performance and the higher average grades in the integrated classrooms. The significantly higher averages in classes without Roma students or with a very small number of them also raise concerns about the quality of education available to Roma children.

Although the formation of predominantly or exclusively Roma classes and schools can sometimes be explained—such as by Roma children’s lack of Croatian language proficiency, the proximity of certain schools to Roma settlements, or a high percentage of Roma students—some schools with a balanced mix of Roma and non-Roma students still have segregated classes.

Following the Oršuš ruling, Croatia was required to implement measures to prevent segregation of Roma students, recognizing the importance of preschool education in preparing children for successful primary and further education. Since preschool is now mandatory, measures were introduced to facilitate Roma children’s attendance, including free transportation and government-funded preschool fees covered by the Ministry of Science and Education. However, the data indicate that active efforts are still needed to increase Roma children’s participation in preschool, as they remain significantly underrepresented compared to the majority population.

Deputy Kesonja pointed out that the reasons for this are varied and are both objective and subjective. For instance, certain enrollment criteria for public preschool institutions, such as requiring both parents to be employed, disadvantage Roma families. The distance between preschools and Roma settlements also poses a challenge, as does the fact that the prescribed preschool program, ranging from 250 to 550 hours per school year, is often too short to fully compensate for the effects of social deprivation experienced by Roma children.

A major issue in Roma education is the frequent dropout from primary school before completion, lower participation in extracurricular activities, and the disproportionately high number of Roma children placed in special education programs (designed for children with developmental disabilities). More than 50% of Roma children attend such programs, compared to only around 10% of children from the majority population.

Deputy Kesonja concluded by highlighting the European Commission’s recommendation that early childhood education is one of the most effective ways to support children’s development and help them overcome disadvantages. In this context, integrating Roma children into preschool education could reduce gaps in social development, improve literacy and numeracy skills, and ultimately narrow educational disparities between Roma and the majority population. This, in turn, could help break the cycle of poverty and low social status passed from parents to children, opening up new opportunities for education, social inclusion, and employment for the future generations of Roma.

In addition to Deputy Kesonja, other participants in the event included Emina Berbić Kolar, Dean of the Faculty of Educational Sciences at the University of Osijek; Luka Juroš, Head of the Office for Education, Sports, and Youth of the City of Zagreb; Lidija Pongrac Vincelj, Advisor to the Ombudsperson for Persons with Disabilities; and Jasna Krstović from the University of Rijeka, who is also the president of the Academicus Club.