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Decision 499 / 23.06.2016 of the Council of Ministers appointed Deputy Prime Minister for EU funds and economic policy Tomislav Donchev a chairman of the National Council for Cooperation on Ethnic and Integration Issues. According to the Regulation for Organization and Operation of NCCEII the structure can be chaired only by deputy prime minister.

Tomislav Donchev takes a non-functioning and delegitimated council, which does not practically operates for years, and on April 8, 2013 was left by the largest Roma organizations: Amalipe, Integro, World Without Borders, Roma Academy for Culture and education and others. Their call for deeper institutional reform in the Council had been ignored three years from the Bulgarian institutions, but not by the European Commission. In early 2016, the former chairman of NCCEII Kalfin announced his plans to restructure the Council which were not finalized because of resignation submitted in may. Donchev has the task to conduct a genuine reform of the institutional framework of integration policy.

Tomislav Donchev is a Master of Philosophy and Master of Business Administration of the University of Veliko Tarnovo. He started his career from the civil sector: student club "Open Society", Centre for Educational and Cultural Initiatives and the "Open Society" Institute. In 2007 he was elected Mayor of Gabrovo and formed a team that turns the municipality in the second one nationwide to attracted European funds. In 2010 he was elected Minister of European funds in the first cabinet "Borisov". Since November 2014 he is Deputy Prime Minister for European funds and economic policy.

In his work in the Council of Ministers Donchev has repeatedly shown commitment to policies for Roma integration. "We must admit that we still lack political consensus on Roma integration: many politicians are silent and did not comment on the topic. We should create this consensus together", Donchev said at the conference" European Funds: Opportunities to support Roma integration ", which was held on April 8, 2016 in Sofia. He stressed that Bulgaria has established successful practices for Roma integration, especially in education and health: we already know what needs to be done in these fields - these practices must become policies. The situation in the labor market is not quite the same. And we frankly have some failures in the field of housing.

During that forum Donchev supported proposals for the establishment of a political mechanism for joint programming of operations for Roma integration funded by EU programs, EEA Financial Mechanism, Swiss Cooperation Programme and other instruments, as well as the development of an updated plan with operations for Roma integration. More information about the stated political intentions then (more than two months before Deputy Prime Minister Donchev to take NCCEII) refer to: http://www.amalipe.com/index.php?nav=news&date=15.04.2016&lang=2