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Livia Jaroka, a graduate of the CEU Department of Sociology in 1999, became the first CEU graduate elected to the European Parliament (EP) in June 2004. In addition, she is one of the two members of the EP to represent the 14 million Roma living in European Union countries. Livia is completing her PhD in ethnic and minority studies at University College London (UCL). She came back to CEU in the fall of 2004 to give a speech at the CEU Academic Year 2004/2005 opening ceremony, and to meet our alumni affairs team for an interview.
AAO: Livia, welcome back to CEU and congratulations on being elected to the EP. How do you deal with the sessions that take place in Brussels and Strasbourg? How is your family coping with the extensive travel? You mentioned that Emma, your daughter, is one and a half years old.
LJ: The actual organization of everyday life is very difficult because I am used to being with my daughter all the time. Now, I have to leave her at 7:00 a.m. to get to the Parliament and I go home to have lunch at around 2:00 p.m. Sometimes, I can take her for a walk in the afternoon. On the weekends we usually come back to Hungary because my family lives in Sopron, which is close to the Austrian border.
AAO: Do you have a busy schedule in Budapest?
LJ: Yes. I am only spending one day in Budapest. I arrived in Sopron last night at 2:00 a.m., then stayed at my parents' house, and at 6:00 a.m. I came to Budapest by train.
AAO: And do you go back to Brussels tomorrow?
LJ: Yes, because on Monday morning we will have the hearing for the commissioners, which is an important opportunity to raise questions. I am in the Women's Rights and Gender Equality Committee and in the Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs Committee. In the Women’s Rights and Gender Equality Committee we are organizing a hearing for Roma women. They will come from all over Europe to talk about their situation. This will hopefully be followed by our Roma initiative report, a unique proposal within the European Parliament. In August 2004, I flew to Greece for a fact-finding mission related to the Roma situation there. Together with the European Roma Rights Center (ERRC) in Budapest, we are trying to persuade the Greek Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) to look into the case of the Greek Roma. On October 11, together with another CEU graduate, Claude Cahn (US, HIST ‘95) from the ERRC, I participated in the case against the Greek government by submitting a written declaration.
As you can tell, most of the time I am not a bureaucrat. I see myself much more like a negotiator and a monitor. I am interested in whatever the European Parliament comes up with as far as Roma issues are concerned, even if it does not correspond to the views of national governments. I am pushing the Roma concerns very hard on all levels of political decision-making within the EU framework and I also work very closely with NGOs. There are many things to do and I have to learn my limits. There are different initiatives that seem to be good for including Roma issues on the agenda, for instance an inter-parliamentary group that relates to human diversity. We are launching the Anti-Racism and Diversity inter-parliamentary group as a negotiation venue among MEPs, informal and formal groups within the European Parliament, the Commission and national governments. This will help to put the Roma issue into a concrete context, a mixed climate.
AAO: Do you mean in the context of human rights issues in general?
LJ: Yes. I think there are very few cases that can be labeled as pure "Roma" cases. Of course, we have to address Roma discrimination with a very intense voice, as well as to consider the cultural aspects of Roma life. Having said that, our problems with housing, employment, education and healthcare are basic human rights, as well as discrimination issues, that should be dealt with within the European framework. That is why I was not sure about joining a special Roma committee, and I was glad to be within an inter-party, inter-parliamentary group. This is an anti-racism group, backed by a very strong NGO lobby in the field of human rights. Just to give you an example, the European Network Against Racism (ENAR) is one of them.
AAO: Do you think that the European Parliament should have more power? It seems a little undemocratic that the Commission and the Council, which are bodies not elected by the people of Europe take decisions, and your role is only to agree about decisions.
LJ: We agree or disagree, and we argue about decisions. Actually, the decisions that are made by the Commission are much more discussed and prepared by the European Parliament than people think. Very little information about this is coming to Hungary, so people do not really know what is actually going on within the European Parliament. What we do is to constantly debate and negotiate within our group, in the Parliament, and in the Commission. I meet with other MEPs, with NGOs, and with governmental representatives. Thus, by the time there is a decision to be made in the Commission, we already know about it and we have worked on it.
AAO: What about the relationship between national Members of Parliament (MPs) and their European peers—local politics are often believed to be more important, while the European level is perceived to be less so?
LJ: I am not only representing the case of the international Roma community, but also all Hungarian people. I am of Roma origin and I do not mind this to be stressed, because it helps the cause. I make sure everybody knows about the issues Roma face. People in my party are, by now, all aware of the Roma issue and a lot of them are open to discuss this issue. Every national delegation sends a member to the Group of the European People's Party and the European Democrats in the European Parliament (EPP-ED) sub-committee on Roma, led by Viktor Orban, former Prime Minister of Hungary. We have a conference on Roma issues in EPP-ED at the beginning of December and are planning to work out an EPP-ED Roma program by May 2005. There are some people among the liberal and socialist parties who are ready to work on this issue with me, so I just carry on. I have no party preferences. I work with everybody who can add to this issue from their heart and with their professional knowledge, rather than those who are interested in "window-dressing," or "ethno-business" activities.
AAO: You mentioned the European Roma Rights Center (ERRC), a Budapest-based human rights NGO. What kind of connections do you have with this center?
LJ: I tried to make connections to most civil Roma organizations in Europe. As an anthropologist, an activist and now as a politician, I use this network. Experience with the ERRC is an important background. Though my main partners are from civil society, I need to have working connections, not only within national governments, but also with the people in the European bureaucracy—in the European Parliament and in the Commission.
AAO: What can you say about the year you studied at CEU—what did this year give to you?
LJ: First of all, CEU helped me to prove myself. For me, CEU always meant a sense of togetherness and creativeness. I loved the atmosphere at CEU, the fact that I could be anything I wanted. This gave me so much strength. I came to CEU with huge doubts, as I only intended to do a college degree. I was a girl from the countryside and also of Roma origin. It was so good to see from the very first moment that people believed in me, so I began to believe in myself. Here, I had my best teachers and my best friends.
AAO: Do you know that Angela Kocze (Hungary, HUMR ’98), former director of the European Roma Information Office in Brussels, is one of our alumni too? Do you see her?
LJ: Yes, while she was in Brussels we worked closely together. Her son is two and a half years old, my daughter a year and a half, so we exchange ideas as well as talking about motherhood. Not only is she a friend, but she also has a very good background in human rights. I am also constantly consulting with my CEU and UCL supervisor, Michael Stewart (Nationalism Program), under whose supervision I wrote my PhD thesis, and my CEU supervisor, Mária Kovács (Nationalism Program). And, CEU professor Slawomir Kapralski (Sociology and Social Anthropology) was among the first who congratulated me on my election.
AAO: Thank you for this interview Livia! Do you have any final words for the CEU community?
LJ: Thank you very much for this opportunity. I was very glad to come and see many familiar faces. The year at CEU truly gave me such freedom. When I arrived as a Roma student, it was a liberating feeling to be one of the others. But also, the first thing you realize when you come to CEU is that you are very special, and you are treated as such. CEU is a life-long experience.
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