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Sefcovic: Problems of Roma Require Comprehensive Solutions
Friday 05 March 2010 Zoom in | Print page
Bratislava, March 5 (TASR) - Improvements in education and housing for the Roma represent a modern perspective of how to tackle the problems of the Roma minority in Europe, and the European Commission (EC) is looking for the comprehensive solutions that are required to master this agenda, said Slovakia's EU Commissioner Maros Sefcovic in Bratislava after meeting chairman of the Council of NGOs for Roma Communities Ladislav Richter.
According to Sefcovic, it's important that Roma-related programmes are adjusted to local conditions in every country, because they often don't work otherwise. The Commissioner said that a "strong group of commissioners" is being formed, and these will be responsible for preparing an evaluation report on how successful the EC's attempts to solve the Roma issue have been to date. The document should then become a framework for further recommendations and measures to be taken in order to tackle Roma problems in individual EU-member countries.
"For us, it's important that each country's Roma communities are involved in this process, so that we can hear straight from the horse's mouth - whether the measures adopted at EU level are bringing any tangible results," said Sefcovic.
Richter said that Roma organisations in Slovakia are ready to carry out the policies adopted vis-a-vis the Roma population. The most important elements of these policies are education and employment. The Council is pushing the idea of setting up boarding schools for Roma children.
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