EU PROGRES

“All employees of the European Partnership with Municipalities Programme – EU PROGRES, consider diversity a driving force of development: and when I say that, I am not only referring to the economy but to life that can be both intellectually and emotionally more fulfilled. Every day we work with representatives of minorities in South and South West Serbia – Albanians, Bosnians, Bulgarians and Roma and they are our equal partners in development” said PROGRES Manager, Graeme Tyndall, at a gathering on the topic of cooperation between the national minority councils in Serbia and the competent bodies held on the occasion of the International Roma Day at the House of the National Assembly.

 “At the same time, we are aware of the challenges that minorities are faced with and we are helping the Government of the Republic of Serbia to give all citizens a chance to improve their lives. We are grateful to the Roma National Minority Council for taking the leading role in the project with Albanian and Bulgarian Councils within which we are jointly trying to improve the dialogue of minorities in South Serbia and strengthen the relations and trust among young people regardless of their ethnic, religious, social or cultural background”, Tyndall added.

National Assembly Deputy Speaker, Gordana Comic, indicated the necessity of joint efforts in order to improve the position of Roma in Serbia, especially due to numerous prejudices, stereotypes, intolerance and discrimination. Minister of Human and Minority Rights, Public Administration and Local Self-Government, Milan Markovic, emphasized that 2012 will be the year in which the issue of legally invisible persons will be resolved and the position of Roma national community in Serbia will be improved. Commissioner for Protection of Equality, Nevena Petrusic, spoke about open hate speech against Roma and frequent attacks, as well as segregation of preschool and school children of Roma nationality.

According to the last census, there are around 700,000 Roma living in Serbia. Only five percent of them are permanently employed, 80 percent are functionally illiterate, 3,000-5,000 of them are legally invisible while there are around 600, mostly illegal, Roma settlements on the territory of Serbia.

During the round table on the Decade of Roma Inclusion in Leskovac, Serbian National Assembly Speaker, Slavica Djukic-Dejanovic, spoke about the impact of economic crisis on the deterioration of the Roma status pertaining to education, employment, access to health services and resolution of the housing issue. “The entire society with full cooperation of the Roma community can take some steps to abandon such state of affairs” Djukic-Dejanovic said in Leskovac.

“EU PROGRES supports numerous projects aiming to improve living conditions for the Roma such as the Roma Education Centre in Leskovac or education of young Roma in Prokuplje since education is one of the key elements on a path to a better life” Senior Coordinator of EU PROGRES for South Serbia, Radule Ristovic, said at the round table. “It is important to commemorate the International Roma Day since this day was established in order to turn the attention of the public to the rich cultural tradition and at the same time, point to the problems that Roma are faced with. Bahtalo Romano dive (Happy Roma Day)”!

On behalf of EU PROGRES, Mr Ristovic accepted a certificate of appreciation for contribution to the improvement of the Roma situation at the ceremony marking the International Roma Day in Leskovac.