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  The European Commissioner for Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality Vera Jourova met civil society organizations working on judicial reform, human rights and Roma integration. The meeting was held on 25 October at the House of Europe in Sofia on the initiative of Commissioner Yourova. The civil sector was presented by representatives of the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee, Open Society Institute, Institute for Legal Initiatives, Union of Judges and Amalipe Center. For me, this meeting is extremely important, as I would like to hear the views of the active civil society...

Valeri Simeonov, Deputy Prime Minister and Chair of the National Council for Cooperation on Ethnic and Integration Issues of the Republic of Bulgaria, was found liable by the district court in the city of Bourgas for his anti-Roma hate speech as a Member of Parliament before the National Assembly on December 17, 2014. Simeonov is also leader of the Bulgarian ultranationalist party National Front for the Salvation of Bulgaria. At the time, Simeonov’s party was not part of the government. His Cabinet appointment came in May 2017 when the United Patriots, a grouping of ultranationalist...

In September, "an army" of 11602 experts, organized in1103 teams, began searching for 206,000 dropouts and children, who were out of pre-school and school education. Even cutting the ones, who are abroad, the amount of disaster "dropping out" remains stunningly impressive. The claim of investment in pre-school education as the most effective and inexpensive measure to prevent dropping out is self-evident and proved by plenty of evidence. The scope of pre-school education in Bulgaria is low - according to the National Statistical Institute, the net enrollment rate in pre-school...

Soon, the pig farm built on the site of the former concentration camp will be destroyed. The fetid smell that inevitably envelops visitors will have disappeared. The stele placed on the mass graves will be moved. A memorial will be built. More than seventy years after the end of the Second World War, the site of the former camp for Roma people at Lety, in the Czech Republic, will finally be treated with the dignity it deserves.  It was anything but easy to achieve: only thanks to an exceptional mobilization of European civil society, Roma and non-Roma together, have the...

The Council of Ministers proposes the establishment of a permanent Roma Integration Subcommittee to the Partnership Agreement Monitoring Committee in line with one of the main arrangements negotiated at the meeting between several Roma organizations, Prime Minister Borisov and Deputy Prime Minister Donchev, that took place on 17 of July 2017.  On that date, representatives of four of the main organizations and coalitions working for Roma integration (Amalipe, Intellect, National Network of Health Mediators, and Roma Lom) had a meeting with Prime Minister Boyko Borissov...