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The Vice-President of the European Commission Viviane Reding, the commissioner on Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion Laszlo Andor, more than 300 representatives of European Commission, national governments, international bodies, European and national Roma NGOs took part in the eight meeting of the European Roma Platform.  It was held in Brussels on June 29, 2013. Bulgaria was represented by Rositza Ivanova (Secretary of the NCCEII), Hristo  Nikolov (Savore – Samokov Foundation), Lili Makaveeva (Integro Association) and Deyan Kolev (Center AMALIPE)

"It is urgent to make change for Roma children and Youth" was the name of the meeting. It intended to

explore the urgent need and possible solutions for advancing the integration of Roma children and youth, who are particularly vulnerable also within the Roma community. The meeting also intended to concentrate on finding positive integration models for Roma children and youth that overcome obstacles hindering their equal access to quality services in various fields. Four successive panel discussions were held focusing on:

1. Making change for Roma children from birth to compulsory school age (focus on health, early childhood education and care, and compulsory education): It was moderated by Costel Bercus (Roma Education Fund). The panelists – representatives of DG Education, UNICEF, Fondacion Secretariado Jitano, World Health Organization and school principal from Slovakia – discussed methodology for working with the Roma families, examples of raising the enrollment of Roma kids in pre-school education and health training of Roma youths;

2. Making change for Roma youth (focus on the transition between school and employment): moderated by Jose-Manuel Fresno. Commissioner Andor, representatives of Foyer asbl, Drom Kotar Mestipen (Spain) and TuRom project discussed the necessary preconditions and good practices for raising the employment in Roma community with accent on youth;

3. Roma empowerment: how Roma leaders can drive change: the session was moderated by Deyan Kolev (AMALIPE). Young Roma representatives of TernYpe Network, European Roma Youth Forum and Agentia Impreuna (Romania) discussed the present challenges before the Roma movement and how it could influence the life of Roma. The participants were welcomed through video massage by the MEP from Roma origin Livia Jaroka;

4. Following progress on the ground – shaping policies that work: it was moderated by Aurel Ciobanu - Dordea (DG Justice). The introduction speech of Commissioner Reding was followed by interventions of representatives of the Decade of Roma Inclusion Secretariat, the State Secretary for Social Inclusion in Hungary, the president of the National Roma Agency in Romania, the director of the Fundamental Rights Agency.

The Commission Communication on "Steps forward in implementing National Roma Integration Strategies” and the Proposal for a Council Recommendation on Effective Roma Integration Measures published a day before the Platform meeting became the main topic of discussion. The Vice-President Reding stressed that the Commission's progress report released on June 26 shows that Member States need to do better in implementing their national Roma integration strategies submitted under the EU Framework for national Roma integration strategies. The new report is accompanied by a proposal for a Recommendation addressed to EU countries which proposes to Member States on the one hand specific measures, including positive action, and on the other hand, horizontal policy measures, including local actions to improve the situation of Roma people. Member States would have two years to put concrete measures into practice to make a difference for Roma people on the ground.

The participants raised numerous questions and suggestions. All of them were based on the assumption that much more should be done for ensuring the effective Roma participation, the real consultation with the civil society, the effective monitoring and evaluation of the Roma integration policy.

Lili Makaveeva and Deyan Kolev presented the petition of 35 Roma NGOs in Bulgaria that left the National Council for Cooperation on Ethnic and Integration Issues claiming for new framework that would allow Roma organizations to take active part in the implementation of Roma integration policy as well as would undertake measures for decreasing the anti-gypsism and racism.  At present the National contact point for implementation of the National Roma Integration Strategy in Bulgaria is without any Roma participation and  this should change, clamed the Roma representatives.

The Commission Communication on "Steps forward in implementing National Roma Integration Strategies” could be found at http://ec.europa.eu/justice/discrimination/files/com_2013_454_en.pdf

The Proposal for a Council Recommendation on Effective Roma Integration Measures could be found at http://ec.europa.eu/justice/discrimination/files/com_2013_460_en.pdf