Roundtable "Bulgarian Roma: integration and migrations” brought together four ambassadors – those of France, Italy, Hungary and Finland and none Bulgarian statesman. The event was held on May 12 at the French Institute in Sofia and was organized by the Embassy of France. Representatives of the Council of Europe, the French office of Immigration and Integration, Ministry of Labour in Hungary, activists of Roma NGOs were also present. Bulgaria was represented by the National Coordinator of the Decade of Roma Inclusion Milen Milanov, Lilyana Stefanova - expert from the Ministry of Education and by the chairman of Center Amalipe Deyan Kolev.
In his welcoming words the Ambassador of France Mr. de Poncins stressed that the roundtable is part of a cycle of events that the embassies of France and Italy organized to promote Roma culture and to address the situation of Roma. Ambassador de Poncins said that he visited the suburb “Nadezhda” in Sliven, and that the conditions in which Roma live there are unsuitable for the territory of the European Union. "We will seek assistance from our governments to be given humanitarian aid to these areas and will help the Bulgarian government to resolve the problems there, as we can not imagine that the EU citizens can live like people in Somalia!" said Mr. de Poncins. This was stressed also by the speech of the Ambassador of Italy Hon. Stefano Benazzo.
The first panel of the roundtable was devoted to possible ways for improving the education of Roma children. Participants were Miranda Vuolastranta (Roma Finnish Forum), Diana Kirilova (PhD student at the Sorbonne), Lilyana Stefanova (Ministry of Education) and Deyan Kolev (Center Amalipe). They talked about the existing segregation in education and the need to overcome it as well as about the need for multicultural education that preserves the identity of Roma children and forms tolerance among all pupils. The discussion involved many of the guests - Dr. Joseph Nunev, Gancho Iliev, Stella Kostova, Yuksel Yasharov. The main disputes were on the way of implementation of desegregation policy: the State or municipalities must guide the process and whether it is necessary to invest in the quality of education in the Roma neighborhood schools.
The second panel was devoted to the migration of Roma from Bulgaria to Western Europe. Main participants here were Milen Milanov (National Coordinator of the Decade of Roma Inclusion), Michelle Ge (Council of Europe), Martha Breeze (French Office for Immigration and Integration), Monica Rozsa (Ministry of Labour - Hungary) and Olivier Adam (Doctors Without Borders). They discussed the effects of migration of large groups of Roma on the Roma community in Bulgaria and host countries. The main messages were that not all migrant Roma create criminal problems in host countries and that migration changed the Roma community, helping its modernization. Attempts by host countries to establish programs for remittances to date fail precisely because of the lack of real alternative to a decent existence in Bulgaria, Roma migration will continue until it achieved real integration in Bulgaria.
In the evening Ambassador of France HE Mr. de Poncins present a reception at the residence of France. The reception took place in the very same room in which two decades ago President Mitterrand welcomed Bulgarian dissidents. Ambassador de Poncins welcomed fellow ambassadors of Italy, Hungary and Finland, as well as twenty Roma intellectuals and activists. They talked about how the embassies of EU countries can assist the Bulgarian government and civil society in efforts to integrate Roma.
The presentation of Deyan Kolev could be downloaded here
