24.04.2013Roma organizations boycotted the working group to summarize the proposals for restructuring NCCEII
Roma organizations refused to participate in interagency group to summarize the proposals received for the restructuring of the National Council for Cooperation on Ethnic and Integration Issues. The main reasons for this are the absurd mechanism for its constitution (the group will consist of 15 people of which only one representative of the Roma community) and unclear mandate for its work.
The establishment of a working group was reached after April 8, when Roma organizations left the meeting at NCCEII and demanded restructuring of the Council. In response, Prime Minister Marin Raykov requested for the establishment of a working group which should discuss the proposals and submit them to a new NCCEII meeting on April 22.
The proposal of the Prime Minister was practically diverted by the Secretariat of NCCEII which came with a mechanism for determining the working group on April 16 that the first meeting of this group will be held on April 23. The mechanism also instructs that the working group will work one month, which will delay the presentation of the results of its operations after the election, after the election of new cabinet. Moreover, the mechanism provides that the working group should consists of representatives of the Ministry of Education, MLSP,Ministry of Regional Development and Ministry of Health and a representative of each ethnic minority. Roma should also be represented by an expert.
In a letter to the Prime Minister, Roma organizations who initiated the process proposed concrete actions to build the necessary institutional framework for the implementation of the National Strategy for Roma Integration. They also point that due to "distrust in the possibility of NCCEII in its current format to take the necessary decisions concerning the implementation of the National Strategy for Integration of Roma, and because our firm disagreement with the proposed mechanism for the determination of NGO representatives in the working group to discuss proposals for restructuring NCCEII (it is inefficient in practice will only lead to yet another delay and failure to take the necessary decisions), we pursue a personal meeting with you on which to present in detail and discuss the proposals. " The letter was signed by over 30 organizations
