Nieuw initiatief gelanceerd om discriminatie en armoede Roma te verhelpen (en)

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Eight governments on Wednesday (3 February) unveiled a plan to tackle the severe social problems encountered by Europe's poorest and fastest growing minority.

Going under the name 'The Roma Inclusion Decade 2005-2015', the plan was launched in the Bulgarian capital Sophia.

Speaking at the launch, Bulgarian Prime Minster Simeon Saxe Coubourg-Gotha said "Every citizen should have the chance of a better life, regardless of his ethnic origin or his religious beliefs".

"Then, and then only, can we speak of society evolution as a whole", he added.

Most of the Roma population in Europe, six out of the seven to nine million, live in central and eastern Europe.

"The Roma problem is a European one", the Hungarian Prime minister Ferenc Gyurcsany said in an interview to the Bulgarian newspaper Pari, "It goes far beyond our borders".

The project's objective is to improve the Roma situation in all eight countries, especially in the fields of education, employment, health and housing.

It also aims at stopping discrimination and poverty faced by Roma communities.

High representatives from all the founding countries - Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Macedonia, Romania, Serbia and Montenegro and Slovakia, as well as World Bank President James Wolfensohn and Open Society Institute (OSI) Chairman George Soros, were present.

The World Bank, the European Commission, and the United Nations Development Program, amongst others, also supported the initiative.

However, there was not complete agreement on how to handle the Roma issue.

"I full-heartedly regret the comments made by the Bulgarian prime minister and the Romanian deputy Prime Minister at today's Decade for Roma Inclusion Conference", said Hungarian Liberal MEP Viktória Mohácsi.

According to Ms Mohácsi, both ministers refuse to admit the Roma problem is "of human rights significance", and prefer to see it as a cultural one.

The Decade of Roma Integration is the first initiative of its kind.