Category Archives: News Eastern Europe

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenia and Community Centres

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Slovenia and Community Centres

The Ministry of Labour, Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities has selected four projects for the establishment of nine centres across the country within the framework of a public tender for co-financing a network of multifunctional Roma centres, worth a total of 4.9 million euros.

Two of these will also start operating in Pomurje, in the area of Lendava and Murska Sobota, by the end of this year.

One can rightfully ask if those projects will really further integration in view of the current mood in the country about Roma.

News Eastern Europe Serbia

Serbia, Media, and Roma

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Serbia, Media, and Roma

In the past few years, there has been a worrying increase in anti-Roma narratives across the. Discrimination against Roma is now taking on new forms and intensities, especially in periods of political and economic instability. The security situation of the Roma community is not only reflected in physical vulnerability, but also in a constant sense of insecurity caused by hate speech, systemic discrimination and media stereotypes.

Roma are often discussed without Roma, and problems are solved without the participation of Roma experts, who come from the community and know the essential issues, but also the ways in which they can be solved and how to improve the life and position of the most vulnerable and poorest community. Which, despite various programs, measures and experiments, still faces institutional discrimination: difficult access to education, health services, the labour market and housing.

Montenegro News Eastern Europe

Montenegro and Elections

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Montenegro and Elections

The Roma Council in Montenegro informed that, based on the Law on Minority Rights and Freedoms and the Rules for the Election of Members of the Council of Minority Peoples, on 01.08.2025. it published a public call for applications for electors to participate in the electoral assembly for the election of members of the 5th convocation of the Roma Council. According to them, 27 applications for electors have arrived.

The small Roma minority is not really represented in the Montenegro parliament.

News Eastern Europe Serbia

Roma Culture in Banat

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Roma Culture in Banat

The Citizens’ Association “Roma Center” from Crepaja is organizing the ninth event “Days of Roma Culture in Banat”, which will be held on Friday, August 22, 2025, starting at 7 p.m., in the hall of the Crepaja Local Community.

The theme of this year’s program is “Roma Literature in Vojvodina”, and the guests of the evening will be famous writers Maja Jovanović and Rajko Ranko Jovanović.

News Eastern Europe Serbia

St. Michael

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St. Michael

Saint Michael feast has been a recurring celebration in the Banat. The Banat village of Tornjoš, where Hungarians, Ruthenians, Serbs and Roma live together, this year organized a program that evoked a multicultural spirit, uniting music, sports, gastronomy and tradition, according to a statement from the Ministry for Rural Care.

News Eastern Europe Ukraine

Transcarpathian Ukraine: Help?

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Transcarpathian Ukraine: Help?

On August 15, 2025, a humanitarian action was held in the Roma settlement of the village of Domboky of the Velykyluchkivska community, aimed at supporting vulnerable families. The event was organized by the head of the charitable organization “SOS Children’s Villages Uzhgorod” Natalia Kryvoruchko with the participation of the Regional Coordinator for National Minorities from the OSCE Projects in Ukraine at the Representation of the Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights in the Transcarpathian region Mykola Chyzhmar.

It looks like a nice alibi exercise. Much more needs to be done.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenia, Politics, and Roma

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Slovenia, Politics, and Roma

The Ministry of Labor, Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities has responded to the accusations of the regional civil initiative of South-Eastern Slovenia, which claims that the ministry is not active enough in solving the Roma issue.

The ministry emphasizes that the Roma issue has long been the subject of shifting responsibility between the local and state levels. Nevertheless, they highlighted some concrete activities that have been implemented. Minister Mesec is the first to actively tackle this issue, namely leading an informal government interdepartmental coordination, whose work is bringing visible changes. Important changes have been introduced in the field of education, where the Primary School Act has been amended, and the Kindergarten Act is also in the process of being amended. Roma assistants are now present in schools and kindergartens.

Croatia News Eastern Europe

Lovara in Croatia

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Lovara in Croatia

In the village of Maglenča in Bjelovar-Bilogora County, Lovari, with the Roma House cultural and tourist centre, preserves its rich history, customs, and cultural heritage, thereby contributing to breaking down prejudices and promoting understanding in society. Under the leadership of the Đurđević family, they offer visitors authentic experiences – from traditional food, lavender products, cultural presentations to inspiring stories about freedom, inclusion, and coexistence.

Bulgaria News Eastern Europe

Sofia: Accident and Surveillance

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Sofia: Accident and Surveillance

Following an accident where a passenger of a public bus was run over, a specialized police operation is being carried out in the Roma neighbourhoods of Sofia. They will be monitoring whether traffic rules are being followed, and patrols will be deployed at the entrances and exits of the neighbourhoods. Law enforcement officers will collect the data of vehicle drivers and subsequently they will be checked at the schools where they received their driving licenses.

So in brief, when there is an accident, it has to be Roma?

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Czechia: Remembrance

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Czechia: Remembrance

On August 2, artists symbolically named one of the nameless streets in Česká Bříza “Serinkova”. It was named after the Romano partisan Josef Serinek. The artists are reacting to the decision of the Liberec city council, which refused to officially rename part of Kunratická Street.

Bulgaria News Eastern Europe

Bulgarian School Dropouts

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Bulgarian School Dropouts

Another article on the school dropouts in the Plovdiv region. Apparently, 430 children dropped out last year, prompting the authorities to increase inspections to a total of 22’000. It turns out that 290 of these children dropped out because they left the country. The 140 other who dropped out, according to the news did so because of a “lack of financial opportunities for inclusion in the education system and of course – early marriages.

They could have dropped the “of course” here…

Bulgaria News Americas News Eastern Europe

US Report on Bulgaria

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US Report on Bulgaria

Murder, torture, cruel treatment or punishment continue to be major human rights violations in Bulgaria. This is stated in the new annual report of the United States on the state of human rights in 2024.

However, the document does not mention corruption, as well as discrimination based on ethnicity and sexual orientation, which remain a serious problem in Bulgaria. The news comes more than a year after the last report on the topic, which pointed to corruption, police violence and discrimination as the main problems in Bulgaria.

Unfortunately, a predictable outcome…

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Michal Šamko

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Michal Šamko

The Romano writer Michal Šamko did not have an easy childhood. His parents and siblings came from Svidník in Northeastern Slovakia, but he was born in Jičín, Czech Republic. “Gypsy filth,” they shouted at him in elementary school, where he was the only Rom among 23 children in their class. The biggest punishment for his classmates was to be made to sit next to him. Michal Šamko was determined to achieve something in life, and in the end he succeeded.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenia: Attack

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Slovenia: Attack

In the settlement Žabjak near Novo mesto, Roma attacked and stoned utility workers yesterday while performing a mandatory public service – collecting waste, announced the director of Komunala Novo mesto Bojan Kekec.

Not one of those articles asks the question as to why these attacks occur. Seems that this is what they consider as “normal” among Roma.

Bad.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenian Regional Civil Initiative

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Slovenian Regional Civil Initiative

Regional Civil Initiative demands decisive measures from the Minister of Labour, Luka Mesco regarding Roma. They want the Slovenian government to adopt a law proposed by some mayors of the Southeast of the country which would curtail social help depending on school attendance, and “goodwill from the part of Roma. They request action from the central government.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia: Desegregation

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Slovakia: Desegregation

Just two years ago, all poor children from the Pod Pustým hradom area in Zvolen sat in the classrooms of one elementary school. Students from the majority population gradually left it.

More than half (57 percent) of all socially disadvantaged children in Zvolen attended this school. The other five schools in the city had no such students at all or very few of them.

However, in 2022, the city of Zvolen began to address the segregation of Roma students by redefining school districts. Simply put, children from the poor community no longer belonged to one school district, and therefore to only one of the Zvolen schools.

They now began to assign them to school districts not by street, but by entrance numbers. Today, children from generational poverty no longer fall under one Zvolen school, but attend three – one private and two public.

This is good!

Bulgaria News Eastern Europe

Arson in Bulgaria

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Arson in Bulgaria

Millionaire heir Borislav Minev, son of the Roma businessman from Parvomay and owner of the Bor Chvor dairy company Dimitar Minev, is wanted by the Ministry of Interior as the mastermind behind the fiery attack at the Bamboo Premium Live club in Sozopol.

On the night of Sunday to Monday, over 350 customers of the night folk bar, mostly teenagers, were urgently evacuated by the security of the establishment due to thick clouds of poisonous smoke spreading, and investigators determined that it was a case of military smoke deliberately ignited in the women’s toilets due to a disco war that broke out in the seaside resort town, writes Weekend.

Bulgaria News Eastern Europe

Bad Press

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Bad Press

One of those articles… In the Plovdiv village of Rogosh, the tension between two neighbouring families has reached a critical point. Hristina and Ivan Genkovs contacted our media, claiming that they live in constant stress and fear because of the problems with their neighbours – Ginka and Sasho. According to them, they are of Roma origin, and the problems began several years ago, when Sasho moved into the neighbouring property, and since then there has been almost no peace in the neighbourhood.

In brief, if Roma move in, this is a mess. Bad.

Bulgaria News Eastern Europe

Education and Poverty

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Education and Poverty

According to the article, due to poverty, migration or early marriages: Over 430 children from Plovdiv region have dropped out of school.
Well a bit further, the article becomes a bit more differentiated: The largest number of children – 290 – dropped out of school due to going abroad. Prof. Hristina Yancheva – regional governor of Plovdiv: “The reasons for dropping out of the education system can be summarized briefly – lack of financial opportunities for inclusion in the education system, migration and of course – early marriages.”

The last point may occur, but there can’t be that many of those …

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