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Over 300 participants: politicians, representatives of various institutions, NGO’s and experts discussed together the draft of the National Roma Integration Strategy of Bulgaria and its Action Plan. Among them were the Deputy Prime Minister - Tsvetanov, the Minister for Management of EU Funds – Tomislav Donchev,  the Minister of Education – Sergey Ignatov, ambassadors, representatives of the European Commission, OSCE and others. This happened in Sofia at a conference organized by the National Council for Cooperation on Ethnic and Integration Issues on November14, 2011.

Although we have existing good strategic documents for Roma integration the situation has changed just a little, Tsvetanov said. Therefore there is a need of a serious concentration of efforts. We mustn’t close our eyes about the public distrust regarding the integration policy and changing this should be one of our aims too. As a successful practice Tsvetanov pointed out the “health mediator” practice. As most serious problem of Roma was accepted the housing and the condition’s of living problem.

Polish Ambassador HE Leszek Hensley emphasized the need Roma migration to be linked to preservation of Roma culture and identity. He gave to the organizers of the conference a book representing the contribution of Roma in Europe’s history.

“Supporters and Friends” – this is how the Minister for management of EU fund Tomislav Donchev began his speech at the conference. There are three important messages about integration, he said. The majority needs to understand that integration has no alternative. Minority must know that integration is not only targeted actions but also compliance.  Politicians must realize that integration is much more than good intentions, but also actions.

Minister Ignatov emphasized the key role of education with illustrative examples. He compared a poor and uneducated Roma child he meets everyday and who cannot speak properly Bulgarian with the educated Roma children visiting him at his office each New Year on January 14 (the Roma New Year). These children study in schools involved in Amalipe’s project for reducing the dropout of school of Roma children. “The Roma children came to my cabinet are not different from other Bulgarian children” Ignatov said and illustrated that integration is possible.

The opening of the conference was followed by discussions on the key priorities of the Strategy and the Action Plan. Deyan Kolev presented the “Education” Priority of the Strategy and pointed out that during the work of the workgroup there weren’t significant differences in opinions of experts of Ministry of Youth, Education and Science and NGO’s. In the Action plan under “Education” priority there are provided 73 priority activities – continuing and building upon the existing educational priorities in the field of integration. The specific (“targeted”) actions have a budget and there in the Action Plan are pointed out the responsible bodies for their implementation and monitoring. Deyan Kolev did not hide the problem areas of the strategy: the workgroup of the Strategy has planned activities only till 2015 although the Strategy is till 2020; there is a need to be adopted a Plan with specific programs (financed by EU funds and state budget) in order to secure the necessary funding. It is imperative to be processed “Implementation mechanisms” and “Monitoring” parts which at this stage are the most problematic parts in the Strategy. It is crucial the National Roma Strategy to be adopted by the Bulgarian Parliament in order to include all the municipalities and other important institutions. In response, Deputy Prime Minister Tsvetanov ensured that Government is ready to propose the National Roma Strategy for voting in the Parliament and also said there is a political will this important document to be adopted by the Parliament.

Representatives of dozens of organizations have been actively involved in the discussion of the Strategy’s priorities. Lily Makaveeva and Ognyan Isaev (“Integro” Association) urged local authorities to gain a real power in the international policy implementation in order the Strategy to reflect most of the local needs. Gancho Iliev (“World without borders”), Dr. Stefan Panayotov (Roma Health Foundation) and Prof. Ivaylo Tarnev raised the question of extension of the Action Plan in its “Health” part with new activities and priorities (for example directed to people with no health insurances) and planning the activities till 2020. They regretted that the proposals they made to the Working group haven’t been included in the Action Plan and insisted that to happen. Nikolay Kirilov (“Roma Lom” Foundation) emphasized the need of developing a Communication plan - otherwise the strategy will not gain public support. Deyan Kolev criticized the Action plan in its “Employment” part. It includes just 7 activities and there are not included the successful models such “Roma labor mediator”. In this part there is nothing in the filed of social inclusion and social services in the Roma community.

The secretariat of NCCEII said they are ready to include all the suggestions proposed at that conference. All the suggestions should be sent officially till November 18 to the Strategy working Group in order to be included on the meeting of the Working group on November 23, 2011. The prognoses are that on November 28, 2011 the Roma Strategy and the Action Plan will be submitted to the Council of Ministers.