Government - National Background to this section Return to the National Government list Delivering governance In general national governments have become less concerned with Roma as a result of so-called devolution of administrative powers to regions and local governments. This process, including financial regimes and the operation of legal statutes, has helped governments manipulate their affairs so as to give the impression of central governments having less "direct responsibility" for Roma issues. Broadly speaking this "process" is praactively managed in collaboration with local authority officials and in a way to directly undermines the rights of the Roma both under national and European law. By establishing ad hoc conditionality on the application of statutes, central governments can create many ways and means for those who want to act in a racially discriminatory fashion, to do so. All of this activity is hidden within the "administrative process". However, it is not difficult to unravel this form of corruption and even to identify who is responsible. As in all aspects of administrative law, unless someone sets out to identify and analyse what is going on, and in case of maladministration or abuse reporting it, then authorities, including national and local authorities, will get off with it, as they have done for decades. Legislation The responsibility of governments for legislation also carries the added requirement that they establish structures to ensure the law is followed. This is also true for the adoption of European legislation. In this section we will review such issues and identify varioius instances in which laws have been "ratified", that is they have been transformed into national legislation, but that governments have not brought their institutional and administrative structures into line with the legislation. In other words government administrations are currently breaking the law. This failure is in direct contravention to the Madrid conditions on the Copenhagen criteria for European accession.