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On January 31 Center Amalipe submitted to DG Justice its contribution to the NRISs implementation for 2015.

The overall asesment done stresses:

The year 2015 marked stagnation in the Roma integration policy in Bulgaria. No significant political attention was paid to the implementation of the National Strategy of the Republic of Bulgaria for Roma Integration besides the efforts of European Commission and pro-Roma civil society to foster political engagement of the new Bulgarian government as well as to re-establish the policy dialogue around Roma integration. No developments were undertaken to reform the ineffective institutional set-up for Roma integration and no progress was achieved. Regarding the 6 NRIS priority fields, deterioration occurred in 3 of them (housing, health care, anti-discrimination), the situation remained the same in 2 others (employment and culture) while improvement was observed only in the field of education. The overall public environment also deteriorated: 2015 marked significant raise of anti-Roma rhetoric and stereotypes as well as anti-Roma clashes that were not properly met by Bulgarian institutions.

Unfavorable (for the social inclusion in general) mainstream developments in the fields of healthcare and education formed significant additional challenge that would disturb the Roma integration policy in the near future.

The biggest success factor in 2015 was the engagement of two ESF co-funded programs (Science and Education for Smart Growth OP and Human Resources Development OP) as well as of EEA Grants and Swiss Contribution with funding the NRIS implementation. It brings possibilities for fostering NRIS implementation at local level and for engaging broader set of stakeholders. Nevertheless, much more success factors are necessary to overcome the stagnation in Roma integration policy.

Summury of Amalipe assesment could be found in Publication seccion at:

http://amalipe.com/files/publications/amalipe_assesment_NRIS_2015.pdf