The European Commission on Wednesday said it was taking Slovakia to court over its failure to address segregation of Roma children at school.
Children of the Roma ethnic minority are often placed in special schools for pupils with mild mental disabilities, the commission said in a press statement.
Roma children in mainstream education are often segregated in separate schools or classes, it added.
The commission said that the practice violated an EU law which “strictly prohibits discrimination on grounds of ethnic origin in key areas of life, including education”.
It said that it had raised the issue with Slovakia in 2015, but reform efforts undertaken by Bratislava led to insufficient results.
