(Brussels) – A public consultation to take stock of the implementation of the EU strategy for the social inclusion of the Roma, adopted in 2011, was opened by the European Commission today. The deadline of the Strategy for the promotion of the social and economic inclusion of the Roma and the fight against discrimination will be 2020. The Strategy is focussed on four key areas: education, employment, health, and housing. In the midst of the process for the implementation of the Strategy, the EU Commission wants to “take stock of the results achieved and find in which areas more must be done”. “Citizens, organisations, businesses and institutions” of any kind that are interested in the social inclusion of the Roma can answer the 15-question questionnaire that will be on the EUSurvey platform until October 25th. The EU Commission will then publish a summary of the answers at the end of the consultation, so that a “better, more effective strategy” can be devised for after 2020. It is important that “the weaknesses of our policy” be understood, Vera Jourová, Commissioner for Justice Consumers and Gender Equality, stated today. “I am on the side of the outcasts and those who are left out, so I want us to take all the effective, concrete steps we can to improve the situation of the Roma”, the Commissioner added.