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 At its twelfth meeting held on May 30, the Monitoring Committee of the Operational Programme "Human Resources Development" (OP HRD) approved the Annual report on the implementation of the OP HRD in 2012. This is the only operational program that contains measures for the integration of Roma people in the time frame 2007-2013, as summarized in chapter "Fields of action related to the Roma community," the report also provides information on the progress made in this direction.

In a not too distant  „unforgettablepast" the medium goals were planned with a time horizon of 5 years, allowing it to be achieved (without much effort) for three years. Thus, for each planning period the slogan "Five-Year Plan -  for three years" was current. OPHRD set goals in seven years horizon, as this is the last in terms of negotiating funding. Therefore, at the finish line is good to ask the question, "What did OPHRD achieve regarding the integration of Roma and for how many years will the seven year period be finished?"
 
The road is paved with good intentions

Operational Programme "Human Resources Development" is a key  Programme in terms of Roma integration. If we define the four main areas of Roma integration as education, employment, health and housing, the three of them fall within the incidence of the OP HRD. This is why when in 2006-2007, when the current program was made, the Roma organizations showed activity that was unexpected for the institutions and were able to participate in the planning process as they negotiated (with the government and the European Commission), parameters that were not so bad. So texts describing the problems of the Roma community and setting up guidelines for the integration of Roma are included in both the analytical and the strategic part of the program, the Roma have been identified as a target group in 6 areas of intervention, provided are specific measures to support integration efforts, included is a special chapter "Fields of action related to the   Roma community", defined are  indicators to measure the effect in the Roma community. All this makes it possible to implement a large-scale comprehensive integration program that uses the provided in the  national documents for Roma integration.

As it can be seen with the naked eye, a major integration program was not implemented. Indirectly, even OPHRD annual report confirms this. What was actually done?
 
The rumors of billions invested in Roma integration are greatly exaggerated

A simple calculation shows that the funds OPHRD ultimately plans for activities in pursuit of national documents for the integration of Roma are not much at all. For seven years were announced a total of 9 schemes that deliberately facilitate the integration of minorities, including - Roma. This way from all of OPHRD resource totaling 2,367,045,671 lev for Roma integration was allocated 67 million lev, which is just over 2.8%. The largest share of this money was given directly to the Ministry of Education for adult literacy trainings, with the rest of the money were funded projects of municipalities, schools and organizations to reintegrate school dropouts, desegregation of neighborhood "Roma" schools, introduction of intercultural education, and a small number of initiatives for the integration on the labor market.

Although these 2.8% of the resource OPHRD seem much more than what the state budget allocated for financing of integration policies (in the best case - about 1.5 million lev per year), they are not sufficient for the implementation of the integration program that changes the status quo at least in part. The report of L. Bogdanov and G. Angelov 2006 "Roma integration: Necessary Reforms and Economic Effects" shows that if within 10 years between 766 million and 1.16 bn lev are invested, the benefits for the Bulgarian economy will be between 14.667 bn and 30.633 bn  lev. It appears that the OPHRD funds are less than 8% of what is needed in order to say that Bulgaria has secured a comprehensive integration program at its minimum. The picture does not change significantly if we add that during this period in this area contributed EEA Financial Mechanism, the Bulgarian-Swiss cooperation program, Operational Programme Regional Development" and the state budget: their total contribution is much smaller than that of OP HRD.
 
What was achieved?

A review of the implementation of impact indicators in the Roma community of OPHRD shows that the program lags behind in achieving almost all of them. For example, only 31 Roma people have begun working as a result of mediation services provided OPHRD in 2007-2012, although the target value for seven years is 15,000. Another 2991 Roma people started job after a training (mostly in subsidized employment schemes), but here also the gap from the target value (35 000 in 7 years) is serious. One hundred and forty Roma people are included in training for entrepreneurship for six years as the plan for the seven years was 10650. Not even one initiative to support small business entrepreneurs of  Roma people  has not been realized in 2007-2012, with a target of 2100 to the year 2013. More successfully are being implemented initiatives for inclusion of Roma in training for increasing their professional qualification: 4583 Roma have participated in such training by the end of 2012 as the target is 20,000 for the seven-year period.

Even more significant is the failure of the indicators relating to social and health services in the Roma community. The implementation there is symbolic, and about some of the indicators the values ​​are zero. For example, only 225 Roma were reached through awareness-raising and prevention campaigns in 2007-2012, as the target amount for seven years is 200 000 people.  Only 337 Roma are included in the measures in the social economy, only 39 dropped out of social assistance programs. The Social Assistance Agency, which manages the competitions in the field of social inclusion for all these years refused to ads targeted (targeted) measures for Roma integration, arguing that for all measures the participation of Roma is not forbidden (no joke - this was the argument e repeated many times). The result can be seen in the failure of the implementation of the indicators.

The achievement of educational indicators is the only one with less lag, due mostly to the targeted schemes announced from 2007 to 2012. This way 18 976 Roma children have participated in programs for desegregation when there were 63 000 planned: obviously this indicator will not be achieved, but here the gap is smaller. Of these, 6,664 Roma children are integrated into mainstream schools when the plan was 20 000 children.

Calculation shows that the gap has almost all indicators OPHRD states to measure their effect in the Roma community. Only the indicator "Number of Roma involved in training for the acquisition of key competences" probably will be achieved. At this rate, the planned seven years in other indicators would be achieved over a period of 13 to 387 years. For some of the indicators a longer period is needed , while about the others- implementation has not started. Put another way: "Seven year period - for at least one hundred years!"
 
Where to now?

The failure in implementation of indicators for Roma integration, as evidenced by the Annual Report of the OPHRD is not a new thing. Scandalous thing is that it seems there is no problem for any institution involved in the program. Two years as an observer at the Committee of OPHRD I am alarming that  the "Roma" indicators will not be met. The Ministry of Labor (Managing Authority of OP HRD), Ministry of Education, Employment Agency and Social Assistance Agency (intermediate bodies that manage specific schemes) agree that there is a problem, but they stop there. None of these institutions does not see the problem  as  particularly serious in order to take targeted measures, or at least ask for a review of the indicators. National Council for Cooperation on Ethnic and Integration Issues is also represented on the Committee, but never before had raised issues related to the integration of Roma. Significantly, 6 of the 9 schemes for targeted support of the Roma integration OPHRD have announced proposals Roma organizations in the Monitoring Committee.  The lack of institution responsible for the process of integration is one of the serious problems facing the success of the OP HRD.

So it is one of the important things that should be changed in the new programming period is to find institutional center that is responsible for managing the integration measures, as well as the full implementation of integration policy. Currently it is missing (NCCEII with its small secretariat has other functions and shown no capacity to do so), so the creation is imperative. We need, of course, and many other things. But we should begin from somewhere.