News

Minister for management of EU funds – Tomislav Donchev, Deputy Minister of Labor and Social Policy – Deyana Kostadinova, Walter Wolf and Kiril Kiryakov from DG Employment, Social Affairs & Inclusion, European Commission, representatives of non-government organizations and experts in the field of employment from Bulgaria, Macedonia and Greece discussed how to increase levels of employment and social inclusion of young people from Roma communities in rural areas. This happened at the kick-off meeting on "Promoting social inclusion of young people in marginalized groups of the Roma community in rural areas" 

The project is supported by the PROGRESS Program of the European Commission and will be implemented by the Centre Amalipe - Bulgaria, the National Roma Center in Kumanovo - Macedonia and Liga Pro Europa - Romania. The meeting was held on 1-2 December in Sofia, Bulgaria.

“Roma in rural areas are the most vulnerable to poverty and to exclusion group and we hope that Amalipe and its partners will find suitable activities to increase levels of social inclusion and employment among this particular group. Therefore PROGRESS Program and DG "Employment" of European Commission has high expectations on this pilot project and it will support it by all means”, announced in his address Walter Wolf. He pointed out that rural development should not be perceived only as development of agriculture. It also includes development of appropriate social services, better education and training so that young people from these regions can be realized in the best manner, wherever they choose to live – on the national and even on the European market. Walter Wolf emphasized the strong Roma-attitude among the administration and recommended more efforts to overcome this.

Minister Donchev stressed out that the National Roma Strategy (which is going to be accepted nowadays) should include not only good goals and measures but also to provide resources for their implementation. Of particular significance for the strategy implementation is the level of public support and in this respect we have a serious problem. The majority of the Bulgarian society is indifferent and often hostile to the integration measures whereas we need actively to support it. Therefore our joint task is not only to convince everyone that integration has no alternative but also that it is necessary for the progress of Bulgaria. Progress and development are related not only to investments in small and medium enterprises, but also to the Roma integration, Donchev said. He pointed out that Roma are not only subject in the integration but also active participants in this process. Successful NGOs are one of the elements of this participation and there are needed measures to develop the other elements too.

Youth unemployment is one of the most acute problems throughout the European Union and the young Roma are most vulnerable in this process, said in her address, Deputy Minister of Labour and Social Policy, Mrs. Deyana Kostadinova. She listed the measures which the Employment Agency is taking to increase employment levels in the Roma community (for example:  Roma employment mediators, forthcoming appointment of 100 and others.) stressing that there are still needed new measures which to lead to a systematic pattern. In this regard, MLSP will rely on the expertise of NGOs and will facilitate the implementation of the Amalipe’s pilot project.

  Kiril Kiryakov, team coordinator of DG "Employment" European Commission for Bulgaria congratulated Amalipe for being able to proactively detect the most pressing problems of the community and to propose innovative solutions. He emphasized the opportunities which European funds are giving and during this program period there are a lot of operations targeting Roma (announced mostly because the activeness of the Roma NGOs.) and for the new program these possibilities will increase. European Commission puts the existence of National Roma Strategy as a pre-condition (ex-ante conditionality) to any government that wants to use any funds from the European Social Fund. In addition there is offering at least 20 % percent of the fund to be used for social inclusion. LEADER approach associated with activation of local communities will be brought in all the programs funded by the European Social Fund, Kiryakov said. This provides a real chance for serious funding of Roma integration policies. In particular - if this pilot project found a model for increasing levels of employment and social inclusion of Roma in rural areas, this model can be financed in the new program period.

The Chair of Amalipe Center, Mr. Deyan Kolev said that choosing as a target group Roma young people from rural areas is very specific and the project partners are aware that there is going to be done a lot of hard work filled with challenges. Regarding the Roma integration so far we have a lot of successful models for improving access to education and health but employment remains a major challenge and the success stories there are too scarce. The model we are going to build and check its effectiveness is associated with activation of the Roma community recourses an d building partnership with local institutions and business in order to develop an integrated plan for the municipal development. The model includes the establishment of centers for community development as a form of raising young people's self-organization and development of municipal plans for inclusion of specific economic solutions, Kolev said.

During subsequent discussions, Mrs. Julia Grigorova, member of the Monitoring Committee of the Rural Development Program presented the process of creation of the Local Active Groups under the LEADER approach and the current barriers that prevent the integration of Roma in the local active groups. She identified specific steps to overcome these obstacles and expressed conviction that in the pilot municipalities selected for this project Roma community will be intensified in order benefit from the program for rural development. Their experience presented the community moderators from the Centers for community development in Kameno, Etropole, Byala Slatina, Targu Mures and Peshtera.  Their presentations and stories sparked great interest among all participants. Although they were formed only 5 months ago, they have already solved many cases of early marriages, returned to school, children, children enrolled in kindergarten, etc. For example the community moderators from Kameno only for 3 months have done mapping of all the families in the town, 5 children dropped out of school are back to school, 20 parents were motivated to allow their kids to visit kindergarten and there was made agreement with the local authorities for asphalting the neighborhood’s streets. Although these centers are designed to develop social services in the Roma community, the approach they use gives results on rising levels of employment, agreed participants in the meeting. Tashka Gabrovska presented the experience of JOBS-center’s Program on creation of job-places in Roma communities in Burgas and Pazardjik. The experience of the "Earth - a source of income" NGO was presented by Ivan Penev. Natalia Miteva presented the programs of the "America for Bulgaria" directed to employment of young Roma. They all expressed their willingness to support the implementation of the project "Promoting social inclusion of young people in marginalized groups of the Roma community in rural areas". Representatives of municipalities Lyaskovets, Strazhitsa and Kaspichan expressed willingness to be included as pilot municipalities within the project. They declared themselves ready to grant facilities for the activities of the Center for Community Support, and desire to work on increasing employment rates in the Roma community. Participants also discussed the main activities to be implemented under the project. They identified the criteria for selection of pilot municipalities for the selection of community moderators.