24.01.2010Meeting of the Roma leaders Lyaskovets Strazhitsa, Byala and Popovo
Thirty Roma activists and NGO representatives from municipalities Lyaskovets Strazhitsa, Popovo and Byala participated in a meeting, "Active citizen participation in the absorption of European funds at the local level”. The meeting was held from 22 to 24 January in the town of
Participants discussed how to strengthen the involvement of NGOs and the participation of local Roma communities in the process of preparing and implementing community projects under the Operational Program "Human Resources Development", OP "Regional Development” and the Program for Rural Areas Development.
General opinion was that at this stage the European projects are prepared and implemented without the citizens (in particular - Roma) to know about them. Special measures are needed to enhance civic participation - to avoid suspicions for corruption and the projects to meet the actual needs.
Participants account as a positive fact that, as a result of activities under the project "Building a model for citizen participation ..." informal Roma leaders are already included in the working groups preparing strategies for local development for the municipalities of Popovo, Byala, Lyaskovets and Strazhitsa. hey set specific steps to include the full demands of the Roma community in local development strategies of those municipalities, and to include Roma experts and experts from civil society organizations in the governing bodies of the LIG. Participants also discussed mechanisms for sustainable interaction between civil society organizations and municipal administration in the preparation and implementation of European projects. Lessons learned will be presented at a special meeting of local authorities, which will be organized at the end of February. "I feel much stronger now! - Said after the meeting, Maria Stoyanova teacher from the village Vinograd, municipality of Strazhitsa - I had not imagined that in our municipalities there are so many educated young Roma, who are willing to work in the social field to help our people. I particularly enjoyed also that we found common language with representatives of NGOs attended the meeting - despite differences in ethnicity, our interests are common. I am confident that we can achieve what we planned on the meeting and will work selflessly for this!” The participants draw particular attention to the process of forming Local Initiative Groups (LIGs) within the LEADER approach under the Program for Rural Areas Development and the development of their local development strategies. 
"Establishing model for civic engagement and participation of Roma in the absorption of EU funds at local level" project aims to create and test a model for promotion and institutionalization of citizen participation and involvement of Roma in the absorption of European funds at the local level. The project is implemented in 4 municipalities located in three districts: Lyaskovets, Strazhitsa (Veliko Tarnovo district), Popovo (Targovishte region) and Byala (
