Over the years, the European Union and international organisations such as the Council of Europe and the World Bank have taken numerous initiatives to improve the situation of the Roma, the biggest ethnic minority in Europe. Still, the Roma population largely remains socially excluded.
The European Commission conference will focus on the role of social policy innovation and social investment in implementing structural reforms at country level.
National governments in Europe can greatly enhance the implementation of their National Roma Integration Strategies and social inclusion more broadly. One proven way of doing this is by providing assistance to local authorities and organizations to access and implement projects financed by European Structural and Investment Funds.
The highlights of these three-day meeting will concern recent developments at international level, Roma women, including early marriages, Roma youth, Roma children and education , and migration, among others.
Joint meetings between Community Action Groups and Local Authorities representatives took place in Byala Slatina and Shumen, to discuss problems Roma communities are locally faced with.
On 4th of April, the European Commission organised the 3rd Roma Summit in Brussels – the first high profile meeting since the creation of the EU framework for national Roma integration strategies in 2011.
During the past weeks and months, new developments have taken place in Hungary within the ROMED2 process for Democratic Governance and Roma Community participation through mediation
On 18 January 2014, the ROMACT and the ROMED 2 Programmes was officially launched in Italy, during a conference to be held in Milan.
On 5 November, the ROMACT project, as well as the new phase of ROMED2, was officially launched in Slovakia, during a conference held in the City of Kosice. On the occasion of event the Slovakian authorities also presented the three years' action plan for the implementation of the Dosta! Campaign.
Following the launching event, which took place in Budapest on 4 October 2013, the first workshop of the ROMACT and ROMED2 programmes took place on Friday, 18 Oct 2013 in the same city.
