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On 7 April 2011 the Hungarian Women's Lobby, supported by the European Women's Lobby and in partnership with several Roma organizations, most of which are operating also at the grassroot level such as Center Amalipe (Bulgaria), Romani CRISS (Romania), Association of Romani women Szikszó (Hungary), Roma National Centrum (Macedonia), Asociación Gitana de Mujeres Drom Kotar Mestipen (Spain), Manuse-Slovo21 (Czech Republic), Federation of Kalé, Sinti and Manouche Women and others,organized a conference, placing Romani women inthe focus of the discussions on the eve of April 8 and a few days after the publication of the European Commission Communication "European framework for national Roma strategies”. The conference was one of the most real events taking place traditionally on the eve of April 8. It was held in "Kesztyűgyár" - an old glove factory, converted today in a Community Centre in one of the Roma neighbourhoods in Budapest – 8^th district.

The purpose of the meeting was to stress the need Romani women's problems to be addressed by the development policy documents, particularly the European Roma Strategy, which will be finalized with the conclusions of the Council of the European Union in June 2011 The meeting aimed also to provide a forum for discussion of the major problems faced by Romani women and girls from different parts of Europe. The sessions were organized in several thematic areas - education, healthcare, participation, in which women working at the local, national and European levels shared their experience. Over 150 participants from different institutions and countries attended the forum, which again showed the huge interest in the problems of Romani women, including academics, researchers, and students in various gender or social programs.

The meeting revealed several trends. First, it showed a change in the attitudes of the organizations at European level, working on gender issueswhich until now had remained more or less distant and ignorant of the problems of Romani women as a priority in their work. Indicative was the fact that the European Women's Lobby not just actively participated in the preparation and implementation of the conference, but sustainably started playing pro-active role in raising the problems of Romani women in the European agenda. Second, a serious commitment by the European Commission was made with the participation of Daniela Bankier, Head of Gender Equality Unit in DG Justice. This clearly shows that the failure to include the gender aspect in the EC Communication announced on April 5should be compensated with subsequent steps at European level and in the preparation of the national Roma strategies.

Third, the failure to take into account the specific problems of Romani women in the European Roma strategy, the many stereotypes about Romani women that still exist, the lack of sensitivity towardsRomani women’sissues by the Roma organizations as a whole have clearly demonstrated the need for a platform at EU level which would assume certain advocacy functions. This has been shared several times during the conference, and during the preparatory meeting the previous day Romani women activists who work both locally and at national and European level had. It is clear that such a platform should be formalized to enable it to be an active participant in the process of preparing European and national strategic and policy documents for Roma Inclusion. The name that has been suggested for theRomani women platform is ROMNIA - Romani Women United. All agreed that the organization of this structure must be horizontal, not vertical, to make it as inclusive as possible, without imposing a certain leadership.