The Euro-Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Integration, László Andor, visited a kindergarten in the Košice housing estate Lunik IX that is part of a project for integration of Roma on April 23.
When he visited the kindergarten for the first time three year ago, it was a very depressing visit, he said. Now, the kindergarten provides high quality services, is managed at a professional level and is part of the nationwide project aimed at educating Roma, the Sme daily quoted Andor as saying. People from Lunik IX get a chance to work for U.S. Steel Košice steelworks and the kindergarten employs some of the parents and has influence on both children and their parents, the daily added.
Andor summed up that Slovakia has achieved a big progress in integrating Roma against the past, but this effort is a long-distance run, the SITA newswire quoted him as having said.
Andor, accompanied by Slovak Government Proxy for Roma Minority, Peter Pollák, also talked to Košice Mayor Richard Raši and met representatives of organisations fighting for the integration of Roma. Andor praised specifically the nation-wide project of improving the education of Roma children and their integration, and called it the right path to follow. He stressed that the projects boosting the employment and integration of Roma communities are co-financed from the European Social Fund, and this financial support will continue for the next decade, the TASR newswire wrote.
(Source: Sme, SITA, TASR)
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
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