Tag Archives: Integration

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia and Roma Personalities

Published by:

Slovakia and Roma Personalities

The Old Town Library, in cooperation with the Slovak National Museum in Martin – the Museum of Roma Culture in Slovakia and the Romano Forum magazine, opened the exhibition Gallery of Roma Personalities.

The exhibition presents 24 prominent personalities of Roma origin who, with their talent, work and legacy, contributed to the development of society in Slovakia.

News Switzerland

Lausanne: No Insertion

Published by:

Lausanne: No Insertion

The canton of Vaud will not attempt a pilot experiment for Roma integration, which was supposed to provide housing for a limited period of time to around fifteen families. On Tuesday, members of the Grand Council rejected the proposal to this effect.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenia: The Roma “Problem”

Published by:

Slovenia: The Roma “Problem”

A critique at the current Slovenian government’s new plans for Roma inclusion. Basically, they say here that Roma are not interested in working as unemployment benefits are almost equal to the minimum wage, and say that the situation and criminality has deteriorated.

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Czechia: Workshop on Inclusion

Published by:

Czechia: Workshop on Inclusion

The council of Europe organised a workshop on inclusive education for Roma children in the Czech Republic. Nice, but right now, the issue is more the segregation that still revails in aschools in the country.

Montenegro News Eastern Europe

Montenegro and Integration

Published by:

Montenegro and Integration

Today, ALFA Center promoted the collection of essays A Word for Coexistence and Tolerance in the hall of the Zahumlje Public Institution in Nikšić, Montenegro.

The collection consists of 11 essays by children of the Roma population from Nikšić. The essays were created at a creative writing workshop led by children’s writers Goran and Milica Radojičić, as a product of the central motif: All PEACE in us. The idea is that through essays, children present the importance and uniqueness of their culture, along with the importance of accepting all the differences in a society.

Italy News Western Europe

Italy and Segregated Roma Camps

Published by:

Italy and Segregated Roma Camps

Following the intervention of Roma activists and the European Roma Rights Center, the Calabria region had to change the plan that envisaged the construction of segregated housing for Roma families with European money. At their instigation, the European Commission began to look into the case and the project was modified – instead of a new ghetto, Roma families are to be integrated into regular municipal housing. However, activists warn that the new version of the plan still has serious shortcomings.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia: EU Funds

Published by:

Slovakia: EU Funds

Slovakia has received almost a billion euros from EU funds, which are intended to improve the living conditions of poor Roma. Whether the state is using this money effectively, and whether this aid is at all visible directly in the Roma settlements, will be the topic of today’s TA3 discussion show “Let’s look at it”.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenia and Roma

Published by:

Slovenia and Roma

The director of Komunala Novo Mesto Bojan Kekec participated in a recent consultation on the employment of Roma. The Ministry of Labour, Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities presented a new program for the employment of the Roma population to mayors and employers in Novo Mesto.

“We are one of the few companies that also employs members of the Roma community. There are currently three Roma in regular employment at Komunala Novo Mesto,” explained director Bojan Kekec.

Better than nothing …

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Czechia: Road Show

Published by:

Czechia: Road Show

The Roma Road Show series of events, with which Government Commissioner for Roma Minority Affairs Lucie Fuková is going to the regions, presents inspiring Roma projects focused on housing, community work, health, education or security. The aim is to support cooperation between Roma organizations, local governments and local leaders. The first meeting took place on March 5 in Šternberk, with further stops in Pardubice and Jihlava.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Reportage on Tomáš Csics

Published by:

Reportage on Tomáš Csics

He is a Rom, an engineer, and an activist and influencer followed by thousands of people. At school, he was always reminded that he was just a gypsy. “Don’t go to college, Roma will only be hired for lower jobs anyway.” These are the words that begin one of the videos posted on. On social media, he proves with his story that Roma do not have to end up in factories for the lower grades, but can have big dreams and ambitions, just like he had. He achieved success despite growing up in poverty and encountering those who didn’t wish him well along the way.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenia: Legislative Package

Published by:

Slovenia: Legislative Package

The Slovene Minister of Labour, Family and Social Affairs Luka Mesec paid a working visit to Novo Mesto Mayor Gregor Macedoni. His ministry is coordinating the preparation of the legislative package to resolve Roma issues. They will try to complete the coordination on Thursday, he said in a press statement. They will then probably have another “intensive round of coordination” with mayors and others involved, and the package could go into public debate sometime by the end of March.

The package of laws is intended to encourage the inclusion of children in kindergartens and schools and improve living conditions.

Let’s see what comes out of it.

Europe Finland Ireland News Eastern Europe News Western Europe Slovakia

Council of Europe and Roma

Published by:

Council of Europe and Roma

The Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Michael O’Flaherty released today three Memoranda examining the human rights situation of Roma and Traveller communities in Finland, Ireland and Slovakia. Each Memorandum presents country-specific findings and recommendations based on the Commissioner’s visits to these countries, addressing pressing human rights concerns faced by the communities.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia: Roma Action Plan

Published by:

Slovakia: Roma Action Plan

The discussion on the Action Plan for Roma communities is moving to parliament, where SaS is demanding a reassessment of its priorities. The Freedom and Solidarity Party (SaS) points to the government’s failure to address the Roma issue. On Wednesday, at a press conference in the village of Doľany in Spiš, a member of the National Council of the Slovak Republic, Vladimír Ledecký (SaS), pointed out that the government plans to invest 1.1 billion euros over the next three years as part of the Action Plan for the Strategy for Equality and Inclusion and Participation of Roma in projects that, according to him, will not help this population group in any way. He pointed out that these expenditures are not clearly explained or justified. He is therefore submitting a resolution to the National Assembly of the Slovak Republic, which responds to “the passivity of government officials and the inefficient use of resources intended to support the Roma community”.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenia: EU Funds

Published by:

Slovenia: EU Funds

The Slovenian Ministry of Cohesion and Regional Development has approved European funds for the Public Call for Co-financing of a network of multifunctional Roma centres. The total value of the project is 5.5 million euros, with the European Social Fund Plus contributing 4,427,500 euros. The project’s goal is to improve the socio-economic situation of the Roma community, strengthen their inclusion in society and provide better conditions for a quality life.

It needs more than centres like this to change the situation …

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenia and Roma

Published by:

Slovenia: EU Funds

Roma in Southeastern Slovenia have a very bad reputation, and not a week goes by without some headlines in the Slovenian press about the Roma “problem”.

But not all Roma are like that. At the initiative of Silva Mesojedec from the Regional Civil Initiative (RCI) and Darko Rudaš, president of the Forum of Roma Councilors from the Roma settlement Pušča in Prekmurje, members of the RCI and also members of the People’s Initiative (LI) Šentjernej recently went to visit and see Pušča near Murska Sobota. There, they found a clean settlement, well ordered, with people working. The settlement has ca. 600 inhabitants.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia and Integration

Published by:

Slovakia and Integration

A critical review of the efficiency of the Office of the Government Plenipotentiary for Roma Communities who is managing very large sums of EU money aimed at integrating Roma. This office has grown from an original a few dozen employees to over 290, larger that the Culture Ministry. The author states that the Plenipotentiary is nowadays a political appointee and that for all the money spent, very little results have been achieved.

And money they have: Currently 400 Million Euros of EU money are earmarked for Roma integration.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenia: Challenges

Published by:

Slovenia: Challenges

The President of the National Council of the Republic of Slovenia, Marko Lotrič, received in Ljubljana a representative of the Sprememba takoj association Murim Baftiaro, who heads the association established in December 2023 to help Roma youth.

The two spoke about the key challenges facing the Roma community, especially in the areas of education, employment and reducing peer violence.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Critique and Defence of the Plenipotentiary

Published by:

Critique and Defence of the Plenipotentiary

The Slovak opposition party SaS has been criticising the efficiency and use of the EU funds for Roma by Office of the Government Plenipotentiary for Roma Communities and its head, Alexander Daško. They said the funds are used inefficiently, criticised the creation of segregated schools, etc.

This article defends the record of the office, in spite of some of the real controversies that exist.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia: An Opinion

Published by:

Slovakia: An Opinion

A Rom activist, Marian Gunar from Slovakia comments on the recent survey where 33% of Slovaks openly express negative attitudes towards Roma.

Gunar says that it is not all the fault of Slovaks, but that Roma need also to show they can work. He also criticises some of the elected Roma mayors (in places where Roma have a majority) for often not knowing the laws and not knowing how to make a town work.

He also criticises Roma for not pushing parents to educate their children, and feeding on a cycle of poverty and social care. Finally, he says that Roma leaders draw funds for festivals, music, and culture, but that these events are useless in bettering the fate of Roma overall.

Harsh, but with some truth to it.

rroma.org
en_GBEN
de_DEDE fr_FRFR en_GBEN