THE official international launch of the project, The Decade of Roma Inclusion 2005-2015, took place in Sofia on February 2.
The initiative is supported by eight European governments and the international community, with Bulgaria and Hungary as the official hosts.
The project is financially supported by the Open Society fund of George Soros and the World Bank.
Soros and World Bank president James Wolfensohn were present at the opening ceremony at Sofia’s Ivan Vazov National Theatre.
In his opening address, Bulgarian Prime Minister Simeon Saxe-Coburg said that a period of 10 years, the timeframe of the initiative, is enough to see substantial changes in the life of the Roma communities in several important areas: education, health care, housing and employment.
He emphasised that changing the existing image of the Roma community now will take the will and effort of all of society. “It is also important that the Roma people stand united,” he said.
He expressed the firm belief that the Roma communities in the European countries were ready to be active participants in the all-European process of integration of nations.
Addressing the opening, Hungarian prime minister Ferenc Gyurcsany said that poverty had many faces but one soul.
“The problems of the Roma are not locked on the territory of the individual EU member states, because the free movement of people means free movement of social problems,” Gyurcsany said.
He also addressed the need for the EU and the would-be members to adopt a special programme.
A declaration adopted at the Sofia meeting was signed by Hungary, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Macedonia, Romania, Slovakia, Serbia and Montenegro. The act of signing the declaration marked the official start of the Decade of Roma Inclusion.
Bozhidara, a Bulgarian first-grade student, was picked as the symbol of the initiative. She took the signed Sofia declaration and a diary in which she will put down all changes in her and other Roma people’s life in the next 10 years.
While the official guests were delivering speeches and posing for photographs, many Roma gathered in front of Parliament to protest against their wretched condition.
Most of them were bussed by the party DROM from Varna, Bourgas, Plovdiv, Rousse, Pazardjik, Blagoevgrad, Silistra and other towns.
DROM leader Ilia Iliev accused the Government of working preferentially with only some Roma organisations and said that it was treating these as “puppets invited to applaud”.
Iliev said that the money donated to NGOs working on the Roma problems almost never reached intended recipients.
Meanwhile, also on February 2, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) released a survey on the Roma.
The survey was conducted in 10 countries – Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Macedonia, Romania, Serbia and Montenegro, Slovakia, as well as Kosovo – and painted a grim picture of life for the Roma.
On measures such as unemployment, housing, school enrollment, literacy, access to essential medication, running water, and modern communications, the Roma were far behind the majority populations in these countries.
According to some of the findings, five times more Roma live below the poverty line than do the majority populations surveyed in Bulgaria and Serbia.
According to the same findings, only 10 per cent of Roma aged 12 and above had completed primary education, compared to 72 per cent of Bulgarians.
“These conditions are unacceptable in countries that are part of the European Union or aspire to be”, said Andrey Ivanov, human development adviser at UNDP’s Bratislava regional centre, according to a UNDP media statement. “We need action now to close the appalling development gap that separates the Roma from the majority populations in this region”.
The initiative is supported by eight European governments and the international community, with Bulgaria and Hungary as the official hosts.
The project is financially supported by the Open Society fund of George Soros and the World Bank.
Soros and World Bank president James Wolfensohn were present at the opening ceremony at Sofia’s Ivan Vazov National Theatre.
In his opening address, Bulgarian Prime Minister Simeon Saxe-Coburg said that a period of 10 years, the timeframe of the initiative, is enough to see substantial changes in the life of the Roma communities in several important areas: education, health care, housing and employment.
He emphasised that changing the existing image of the Roma community now will take the will and effort of all of society. “It is also important that the Roma people stand united,” he said.
He expressed the firm belief that the Roma communities in the European countries were ready to be active participants in the all-European process of integration of nations.
Addressing the opening, Hungarian prime minister Ferenc Gyurcsany said that poverty had many faces but one soul.
“The problems of the Roma are not locked on the territory of the individual EU member states, because the free movement of people means free movement of social problems,” Gyurcsany said.
He also addressed the need for the EU and the would-be members to adopt a special programme.
A declaration adopted at the Sofia meeting was signed by Hungary, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Macedonia, Romania, Slovakia, Serbia and Montenegro. The act of signing the declaration marked the official start of the Decade of Roma Inclusion.
Bozhidara, a Bulgarian first-grade student, was picked as the symbol of the initiative. She took the signed Sofia declaration and a diary in which she will put down all changes in her and other Roma people’s life in the next 10 years.
While the official guests were delivering speeches and posing for photographs, many Roma gathered in front of Parliament to protest against their wretched condition.
Most of them were bussed by the party DROM from Varna, Bourgas, Plovdiv, Rousse, Pazardjik, Blagoevgrad, Silistra and other towns.
DROM leader Ilia Iliev accused the Government of working preferentially with only some Roma organisations and said that it was treating these as “puppets invited to applaud”.
Iliev said that the money donated to NGOs working on the Roma problems almost never reached intended recipients.
Meanwhile, also on February 2, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) released a survey on the Roma.
The survey was conducted in 10 countries – Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Macedonia, Romania, Serbia and Montenegro, Slovakia, as well as Kosovo – and painted a grim picture of life for the Roma.
On measures such as unemployment, housing, school enrollment, literacy, access to essential medication, running water, and modern communications, the Roma were far behind the majority populations in these countries.
According to some of the findings, five times more Roma live below the poverty line than do the majority populations surveyed in Bulgaria and Serbia.
According to the same findings, only 10 per cent of Roma aged 12 and above had completed primary education, compared to 72 per cent of Bulgarians.
“These conditions are unacceptable in countries that are part of the European Union or aspire to be”, said Andrey Ivanov, human development adviser at UNDP’s Bratislava regional centre, according to a UNDP media statement. “We need action now to close the appalling development gap that separates the Roma from the majority populations in this region”.
