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American diplomats from 11 countries met in Sofia to discuss current development of policies for the integration of Roma in Europe. The forum was organized and hosted by the US Embassy in Sofia. Although it was entirely directed to representatives of the US embassies in countries with Roma from Eastern Europe, some partner embassies and organizations implementing or funding programs for Roma integration - Embassy of the Kingdom of Norway, Embassy of Switzerland, the World Bank and Trust for social achievement, also shared their experience.

To present their views and experiences, the meeting was attended by Deyan Kolev from Center "Amalipe" and Milen Milanov from "Roma Versitas." Bulgaria has good strategies for Roma integration and minimal implementation, said in his presentation Deyan Kolev. We have good pilot models, especially in the fields of education and healthcare integration, but they are not made national policies. The main obstacles is the lack of political will, appropriate administrative framework and a framework for the participation of civil society organizations. Only 2-3 years ago I pointed out as the main obstacle the lack of financial support to integration policies, but now this problem is partially solved by the commitment of funds from the Operational Programmes, the Norwegian Financial mechanism and the Swiss program, said Kolev. The main obstacle is the lack of public support for integration policies, which "feeds" ultra-nationalist parties and hampered even well-designed interventions. Kolev congratulated long-term commitment of US diplomacy for human rights. Roma issue has its international dimension and necessary interaction between all democratic minded factors, he said.

 

At the end of the meeting all participants and guests joined the international campaign "# RomaAreEqual" (the same as the one initiated by youth volunteers of Amalipe "# We are equal") and took pictures with captions "# Roma are equal" in languages of the countries in which they operate.