News

Center Amalipe hosted a meeting with Dominique Be, Deputy Head of Unit at DG Employment of the European Commission, Bistra Valchanova and Raimonda Vysniauskiene from DG Employment to discuss the forthcoming high-level event "The Contribution of EU Funds for Roma integration" in Veliko Turnovo on June 23rd. The series of events will start on June 21st and 22nd in Sofia and will be followed by regional events in Veliko Turnovo on June 23rd and Burgas on June 24th. The EU and the Member States declare a special responsibility to improve the situation of Roma in Europe and turn the Roma inclusion into an essential building block of the Europea 2020 Strategy. As part of its efforts to promote the use of EU funds to support the integration of Roma, the Commission has convened the high-level events in Bulgaria in June 2011. These events aim at raising awareness about the opportunities offered by EU funds, promoting their use and improving the impact of projects supported by them. They are planned also to be part of a process towards a better involvement of the Roma in the implementation of the EU funds operational programs.

The event in Veliko Turnovo will bring together representatives from EU, national and local authorities as well as from civil society. Around 150 participants are expected to visit the event in Veliko Turnovo. It will further examine how to better use the EU funds to support projects aiming at Roma integration, how to ensure effective access to information about funding opportunities, how to enable potential beneficiaries to apply for support from EU funds, how to ensure an adequate financing procedures and how to implement successful and sustainable projects.