For centuries, the Roma/Gipsy minority represented the outcaste of the European mainstream societies. According to the 2002 Romanian Census, more than 75% of Roma do not hold any educational degree while more than 50% of them are unemployed, and consequently cannot take advantage of the social protection offered by the Romanian government. Analphabetism is rampant among the Roma since only 50% of the Roma children attend school on a regular basis. Despite the adoption of important human rights and anti-discriminatory legislation in European Union and more recently in the new EU member state Romania, the Roma population is still marginalized. Our analysis is based on several case studies that document institutional discrimination against the Roma minority in Romania in the following areas: education, housing, access to health-care and hiring.