Inclusive Sustainability and Green Justice for Roma Communities in CEE

Roma are Europe’s largest ethnic minority, with approximately 12 million people spread across the continent. Of these about 440,000 Roma live in Slovakia, predominantly in eastern regions such as Prešov and Košice, while Hungary’s Roma population numbers around 876,000, according to the 2019 Atlas of Roma communities. [1] [2] Often, Roma communities find themselves confined to informal settlements near toxic landfills, polluted floodplains, and wastelands. For example, Košice’s Roma neighbourhood Lunik IX was built close to a large landfill, contributing to high rates of respiratory illnesses and contaminated local water supplies.[3]

22% of Roma in the EU lack access to clean tap water, and 52% live in a state of housing deprivation, exposing them to preventable diseases.[4] Forced evictions from informal housing are frequently carried out without due process, framed as necessary clean-up efforts but effectively perpetuating segregation and exposing residents to new risks. In 2022, the District Court in Košice ruled that a 2012 forced eviction violated the human dignity and privacy rights of the affected Romani plaintiffs, underscoring systemic discrimination embedded in such actions.[5]

Environmental Injustices

Women and children are particularly affected.  Traditional gender roles mean women engage more with household environmental tasks such as waste recycling, often exposing them to hazardous materials. Children, physiologically more vulnerable, suffer severe consequences from pollution.[6]

These environmental injustices are not isolated incidents but part of broader patterns of socioeconomic exclusion. They are often described as “environmental racism”. A term coined by the environmental justice movement to describe the systemic practice whereby marginalised racial or ethnic groups disproportionately suffer from environmental harms, often tied to historical discrimination. For Roma communities, environmental racism intersects deeply with antigypsyism, resulting in hazardous living conditions, exclusion from essential environmental services, and entrenched health and social disparities.[7]

Systemic Exclusion and the “Left Behind of the Left Behind”

Despite the EU’s efforts to address Roma inclusion, such as the EU Framework for Roma Inclusion (2020), environmental justice remains marginal in these policies. [8] Even the European Commission itself has acknowledged that the first EU Framework for Roma Inclusion was an “inexcusable” failure.[9] And whilst the existing literature clearly shows the link between environmental racism and negative impacts on the health and well-being of Roma communities, the topic is still sidelined in academic research.[10]

The persistent lack of Roma representation in environmental decision-making and movements corresponds to the issues raised under #BrusselsSoWhite, including the silence of think-tanksand environmental NGOs,  and means that Roma issues and the topic of racism are skipped in favour of mainstream, predominantly white environmental agendas. [11] [12] [13]

EUKI Project: Empowering Roma Communities in the Green Deal

Against this backdrop, EUKI-project Empowering Roma Communities in the Green Deal, implemented by the Comenius University, RESDI- Roma Environmental Sustainability
& Development Initiative and Hiszako Indie Production & Development Agency, works in Hungary and Slovakia to support marginalised Roma communities’ participation in the green transition. Operating from December 2024 through November 2026, the project focuses on building capacity and fostering sustainable development grounded in the lived realities of these communities.

The project is built on five core components:

• Capacity Building and Municipal Planning: Helping municipalities develop inclusive strategies tailored to local Roma populations.
• Innovative Solutions: Including pilot energy audits for social housing and creation of local energy social enterprises.
• Research: Documenting environmental injustices and sustainable practices within Roma communities.
• Education: Partnering with schools to embed environmental curricula that resonate with Roma youth.
• Network Building and Advocacy: Establishing platforms and coalitions to amplify Roma voices in policymaking.

Voices of Key Project Members

Jakub Csabay and Andrea Figulová from Comenius University (Slovakia), Viktor Teru from RESDI (Slovakia), and Jutka Bari from Hiszako (Hungary) share insights into the project’s goals, challenges, and early impacts.

They emphasise that one focus of the project is to improve housing conditions which remain the least successful in the EU’s Roma inclusion efforts.[14] As Jutka Bari notes: “The biggest challenge is the legal status of the houses and areas where people live. Many of the people we work with have been evicted, and they live in a survival mindset. Environmental issues aren’t their immediate concern—but they feel the effects every day.”

Viktor Teru reflects on similar challenges in Slovakia, especially concerning the legal ambiguity surrounding (partly) informal settlements: “How can we support or improve a community if its status is unclear?” He underscores the value of strong local partnerships, pointing to the project’s pilot community in Lunik IX, where good relations with the mayor have proven essential.

Jakub Csabay adds that local representatives with democratic legitimacy serve as a “good signal for the future and empowerment of the community.” In contrast, on the Hungarian side, the absence of a mayor or similar local partner highlights a structural gap in support.

A fundamental step toward empowering these communities involves ensuring access to quality education, fair employment, and basic infrastructure—rights historically denied to many Roma populations. Equally important is addressing policy blind spots, particularly the design of financial tools that reflect middle- or upper-class assumptions and thus fail to meet the real needs of marginalised groups.

Overall, this “left behind of the left behind” scenario that Roma are exposed to underscores the urgent need for new frameworks that recognise Roma communities as active agents in shaping sustainable policies, rather than passive recipients of aid.

Localising the Aarhus Convention

A critical innovation of this EUKI project is the planned establishment of a dedicated Aarhus Centre for Roma Communities, aimed at localising and updating the Aarhus Convention—an international treaty granting public rights to access environmental information, participate in decision-making, and access justice. [15] [16]

As Jutka Bari explains: “The Aarhus Convention is really a key convention because it’s the only one which legally obliges European countries to use it. But even this one is not so much localised. That’s what motivates this platform—to localise the Aarhus Convention, to make people understand that these practices exist, and they can approach lawyers at European and local levels if they have issues with environmental cases.”

This platform would also promote and advocate training NGOs and legal professionals to handle environmental justice cases more effectively, addressing the current knowledge gap in the judiciary: “Judges are not aware of environmental justice issues. They don’t have the practice of applying these laws. The legal staff of the justice system needs to learn these things. I don’t know if this centre will be successful…but I know it’s very needed.”

The project members also hope to turn it into a platform for empowerment, networking and sharing know-how across borders.

Women and Youth at the Forefront of Environmental Justice

The project emphasises gender and youth perspectives as critical to sustainable change. Women in Roma communities often serve as informal healthcare providers and environmental stewards. Whilst the project is still at the beginning of its implementation, the project members see a promising start of collaboration with positive feedback from the communities. Andrea Figulová says that they already notice a shifting attitude of political and environmental awareness of Roma communities through their first meetings. Women have begun to articulate environmental inequalities more clearly, especially concerning energy poverty and health risks: “It’s not only about having cheap or free heating materials—they speak about health. Many brceseathing problems in their families relate to unsafe heating methods.”

Youth engagement is equally vital for the empowerment of future generations to advocate for their rights within the green transition. Local Roma youth have raised concerns about basic infrastructure—such as the lack of safe pedestrian crossings and community meeting spaces—which reflect broader environmental justice issues: “Youth were thinking to paint pedestrian crossings themselves, not knowing there is legislation and external authorities involved. This is a learning process showing how basic environmental services have been overlooked…This is also a kind of environmental injustice.”

A recurring challenge is the disconnect between municipalities and Roma citizens. As Andrea highlights, municipalities have become more institutionalised, often sidelining genuine citizen engagement: “Instead, they do propaganda…They don’t have the knowledge to localise Sustainable Development Goals, so the public is left behind. The media, too, often isn’t aware of these larger policy frameworks.”

Toward a Just and Inclusive Green Transition

Environmental injustices and racism against Roma communities in Central and Eastern Europe reflect deep-rooted societal inequalities that extend far beyond pollution and infrastructure. The EU—and particularly member states with significant Roma populations—are at serious risk of failing to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the UN 2030 Agenda, unless there is a substantial shift in policy-making and Roma integration.[17] Climate and environmental policies must consider and strengthen the rights of Roma communities actively with laws preventing their forced migration to segregated and polluted settlements. Furthermore, it is time to hold public institutions and private investors accountable for the environmental harm Roma communities have been exposed to historically.

EUKI project Empowering Roma Communities in the Green Deal demonstrates a promising path forward—one grounded in participatory approaches, legal empowerment and intersectional attention to gender and youth voices. By recognising Roma communities as active agents and knowledge holders and by localising international frameworks, this initiative aims to embed environmental justice at the heart of Europe’s green transition. Only through such inclusive, bottom-up efforts can the EU hope to fulfill its commitment to “leave no one behind” and foster a truly sustainable and equitable future.

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[1] Inštitút Mateja Bela (IMB). (2019). Atlas rómskych komunít 2019 (ARK 2019).

[2] Pénzes, J., Pásztor, I.Z., Tátrai, P. and Kóti, T. (2019). Roma population in Hungary: spatial distribution and its temporal changes, 138.

[3] Filčák, R. and Ficeri, O. (2021). Making the Ghetto at Luník IX in Slovakia: People, Landfill and the Myth of the Urban Green Space.

[4] FRA – European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights. (2023). Roma in 10 European countries – Main results. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union, 18.

[5] ERRC Press Release. (2022).  Slovak Roma, whose homes were destroyed under Environmental Law, win

case before Košice Court.

[6]  European Roma Rights Centre (2017). Thirsting for justice – A report by the European Roma Rights Centre. Budapest: ERRC.

[7] Heidegger, P. and Wiese, K. (2020). Pushed to the wastelands: Environmental racism against Roma communities in Central and Eastern Europe. Brussels: European Environmental Bureau, 9.

[8] European Commission (2020). The new EU Roma strategic framework for equality, inclusion and participation. Brussels: European Commission.

[9] European Commission (2020). Commission launches new 10-year plan to support Roma in the EU. Brussels: European Commission.

[10] European Public Health Alliance – EPHA (2018). Annual Report. Brussels: EPHA, 22.

[11] Politico. (2017). #BrusselsSoWhite.

[12] Chloé Mikolajczak and Marianna Tuokkola (2021). In Brussels, green still means white. Euractiv.

[13] Ramanujam, A. and Asri, N. (2021). The climate crisis is a (neo) colonial capitalist crisis: Experiences, responses and steps towards decolonising climate action. Brussels: European Network Against Racism (ENAR).

[14] Civil Rights Defenders (2023). Unnatural Disaster: Environmental Racism and Europe’s Roma. Stockholm: Civil Rights Defenders, 15.

[15] Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe – OSCE. (2025). Aarhus Centres.

[16] United Nations Economic Commission for Europe. (1998). Aarhus Convention on access to information, public participation in decision-making and access to justice in environmental matters. Aarhus: United Nations.

[17] UN General Assembly (2015). Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. New York: UN General Assembly.