Category Archives: News Eastern Europe

News Osteuropa Slowakei

Slovakia and Roma Projects

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Slovakia and Roma Projects

The Office of the Plenipotentiary of the Slovak Government for Roma Communities (ÚSVRK) has contracted approximately 480 projects worth almost 200 million euros over the past year, within which it provided over 95 million euros for the support of Roma and the development of infrastructure. This was stated by the Plenipotentiary of the Government for Roma Communities Alexander Daško at a press conference in Šumiac, Horehronie, on Thursday as part of the annual activity report of the office.

Frankly, the results are not yet visible…

News Osteuropa Slowakei

Christmas among Slovakian Lovara

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Christmas among Slovakian Lovara

The co-founder of the Roma Civic Association Lovári, Jaroslav Bihary (60) from Nitra, told us more about how these holidays take place in Roma families.

News Osteuropa Slowakei

Beautification?

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Beautification?

From November 25 to December 3, 2024, a large-scale artistic visual work was realized in Humenné, Slovakia, on one of the apartment buildings in the Podskalka area.

“The mural is the result of more than six months of the Muse, Walls, Murals project and the authors of the design are renowned artists Viktor Feher and Samuel Velebný. The goal was to search for the history, roots, traditions and stories of the settlement through community-educational meetings with children from the Podskalka locality. This is how the idea for creating a mural that describes Podskalka arose,” explained the project representatives.

News Osteuropa Slowakei

On Slovak Racism and the EU

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On Slovak Racism and the EU

Traditional Slovak racism thinks that Roma are mostly backward, uneducated, refuse to adapt to our culture, at best they just rub their hands together, take what they can from the system but give nothing back, at worst they cheat and steal – like Slovaks in the European Union.

There are, of course, certain differences here. For centuries, we have purposefully pushed Roma to the margins of society, we have not allowed them to settle, own real estate, or perform most professions.

News Osteuropa Slowenien

Slovenia, Roma, and Schools

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Slovenia, Roma, and Schools

The Slovene government is working on a package of measures that address key areas such as access to education, housing conditions and security. Among the proposals is the mandatory inclusion of Roma children in kindergarten a year before primary school and the abolition of the higher child allowance for children who are not included in preschool education.

In plain text: if children do not go to Kindergarten, there’s no more money.

News Osteuropa Slowakei

Slovakia: Discrimination

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Slovakia: Discrimination

The Slovak National Centre for Human Rights (SNHRC) warns of discrimination against Roma in restaurant. It revealed this based on monitoring in ten cities in eastern Slovakia. In as many as six of them, discrimination was detected. A Roma couple tested the restaurants, and, if the result was discriminatory, another couple came to verify. The centre thus teste the services in 137 restaurants in total.

Montenegro News Osteuropa

Montenegro and Roma

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Montenegro and Roma

The representative of the Roma Council, Šejla Pepić, spoke at the session of the Parliamentary Committee for Human Rights and Freedoms about the current position of the Roma community in Montenegro. According to the Roma Council, there has been “no talk about Roma and their recognition as a national minority and later changes to the law concerning political participation.”

Ungarn News Osteuropa

Council of Europe, Hungary, and Roma

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Council of Europe, Hungary, and Roma

From 10 to 13 December 2024, the Roma and Travellers Division of the Council of Europe, in cooperation with the Department for the Execution of Judgments of the European Court of Human Rights, the Agent of the Hungarian Government before the ECHR and the Hungarian police authorities, organised a training of trainers based on the toolkit for police officers, focusing on the Council of Europe standards on racially motivated crimes and non-discrimination.

Well… Discrimination in Hungary is rampant. And the government has done nothing in the last 20 years against it…

News Osteuropa North Macedonia

North Macedonia: Unequal Opportunities

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North Macedonia: Unequal Opportunities

“The poorest areas (ghettos) or suburban areas are poorly developed neighbourhoods with poorly built houses, without access to water, sewage, paved roads, electricity and other basic public services available in the modern world. All this contributes to creating an unequal starting point and life opportunities compared to other citizens living in a developed neighbourhood, settlement, district or city. “Due to poor housing conditions, a series of other social problems arise, such as social exclusion, insufficient inclusion of children in education, difficulties in accessing work, health, social rights and other public services,” says the Commission for Prevention and Protection against Discrimination on the occasion of International Human Rights Day.

News Osteuropa Slowakei

Roma Minority in Slovakia

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Roma Minority in Slovakia

Roma have been in Slovakia since the 14th century. The first written document about the Roma population in Slovakia is a document from 1322, in which the presence of Roma in Spiš is mentioned by the Spišské novoveske mayor Ján Kunch. Later, larger groups of Roma arrived in Slovakia. In 1423, Sigismund of Luxembourg issued a document at Spiš Castle that guaranteed the Roma certain guarantees of protection and self-governing judicial powers.

The difference in number of Roma in the 2021 census and the number of Roma residents in the latest Atlas of Roma Communities from 2019 is almost threefold. While the 2019 atlas indicates that at least 417,535 Roma people live in Slovakia, in the 2021 census, only 156,164 Roma people declared themselves Roma.

Lettland News Osteuropa

Latvia Roma Platform

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Latvia Roma Platform

Thanks to European funding, the Ministry of Culture will be able to continue implementing the project “Latvian Roma Platform VIII”. The Cabinet of Ministers approved the report on the project’s progress and the allocation of the necessary funds the day before, the ministry reported in a press release.

The funds are to be spent between May 1, 2025 and April 30, 2027. The funds were allocated from the pan-European program “Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values” following a competition for projects designed to promote equality, inclusiveness and participation of the Roma minority in society. The total funding for the project is 221,657 euros, of which 199,491 euros (90%) are funds provided by the European Commission.

Bulgarien News Osteuropa

Bulgaria, School, and Roma

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Bulgaria, School, and Roma

An outraged teacher sent an anonymous letter to Nova TV complaining that students are doing belly dances in the assembly hall of the “Vasil Levski” vocational high school in Ihtiman. The young people are drinking beer and dancing instead of being in class and studying. The teacher says he was shocked.

News Osteuropa Slowenien

Slovenia and Roma

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Slovenia and Roma

The final conference of the international ACE project, led by the Roma Association of Slovenia took place in Murska Sobota. The project, done in cooperation with partners from Italy and Spain, lasted two years and had a clear goal: to empower young and older Roma and political stakeholders for better cooperation and inclusion. According to the project team, the project has positioned Slovenia as an example of good practice, as it is the only one of the participating countries with an adopted law on Roma and a national program for Roma. “Slovenia is a bright spot of the project, because with legislation and experience we can contribute a lot to other countries,” emphasized Škerlak.

Well, judging by the Slovene press, this seems highly doubtful…

News Osteuropa Polen

Poland, Roma Music, and PiS

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Poland, Roma Music, and PiS

A video emerged of two politicians of the ultra-conservative PiS party dancing on Roma music. Nota bene, the party is not particularly well inclined towards Roma…

News Osteuropa Polen

Roma Feminism

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Roma Feminism

A discussion with Dr. Joanna Talewicz about emerging Roma feminism, cultural changes in Roma communities, and the influence of pop culture on these processes.

Kosovo News Osteuropa

Mitrovica: Concert

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Mitrovica: Concert

“This Friday, December 13, at 7Arte we welcome you for a musical evening with Gipsy Groove, a fantastic group known for their dynamic music that combines traditional Roma sounds with reggae, ska, and funk,” the announcement states. The event takes place in Mitrovica, Kosovo.

News Osteuropa Slowakei

Slovakia and Relocation

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Slovakia and Relocation

Roman Lacko lived with his wife and two children in a shed in a Roma settlement in Važec, Slovakia. He lost his house in a fire in November. The municipality sayas that it tried to help them.

The Liptov village of Važec offers its residents emergency housing 100 kilometres away in another district and region. It bought apartments and a family house there, allegedly because they were cheaper than under the Tatras. According to the association of local governments, however, the problems of socially excluded communities cannot be shifted onto the shoulders of other local governments.

News Osteuropa Slowakei

Slovakia: Tibor Horvath

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Slovakia: Tibor Horvath

Tibor Horváth, a Roma advisor to the chairman of the Košice Self-Governing Region for Roma communities, died this last weekend. The Office of the Plenipotentiary of the Government of the Slovak Republic for Roma Communities reported on his passing: “These days, friends, selfless colleagues, great people and dedicated activists in the field of work with the Roma community have unexpectedly left us forever. Tibor Horváth from Košice, a fighter for a better life for the Roma, the only Roma advisor on the issue of the MRK from eight Slovak regions, passionate about the work to which he sacrificed everything.”

May he rest in peace.

Tschechische Republik Deutschland News Osteuropa News Westeuropa

Reimar Lust Award

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Reimar Lust Award

The historian Kateřina Čapková is a leading expert on modern Jewish history in Central and Eastern Europe, the history of the Sinti and Roma, and on flight and migration in the 20th century. She teaches at the Institute of Contemporary History of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. The central focus of her research is on the experiences of Jewish communities in what was then Czechoslovakia during and after World War II. Čapková opens up new perspectives on the interactions between nationalism, minority policy, and transnational networks in Europe. The Reimar Lüst Prize will enable her to conduct research at the Leibniz Institute for Jewish History and Culture – Simon Dubnow in Leipzig.

News Osteuropa Slowakei

Slovakia: Discrimination

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Slovakia: Discrimination

Klaudio Virág (27), a resident of the city of Levič, tried to get a job at the Slovak Power Plants in Mochovce as a locksmith. He claims that in a phone call, the job broker told him that they didn’t want Roma people in Mochovce, allegedly because of bad experiences.

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