The new action plan for integrating Roma into Slovak society should be focused on education, labour, health care, housing and, especially, on the specific concerns of Roma people, according to a new strategy which is being prepared by the Office of the Government Proxy for Roma Communities, the SITA newswire reported.
“The strategy should serve as the [basis] for following the programme period for the years 2014 to 2020 to define the structural funds of the EU for projects focused on the integration of Roma,” said Iveta Duchoňová from the Office of the Government Proxy, as quoted by SITA, adding that the first meeting of the working group preparing the national strategy, involving representatives of municipalities and non-governmental organisations, took place in October.
The activities of the national representatives, prepared in accordance with the results of the EU Roma platform, should allow Roma to get quality education at all levels, including at university, and should help students to complete their compulsory education successfully, without segregation. In the area of employment, the Office of the Government Proxy wants to support non-discriminatory access to the labour market, as well as the activities of people wanting to set up their own business.
One part of the strategy will be the revised National Action Plan of the Decade of Integrating the Roma Population into Slovak Society, which was passed by the government for the years 2011 to 2015. The government proxy for Roma communities, Miroslav Pollák, said he does not expect the strategy to change after the general election in March.
“The issue of solving the problems of Roma communities is still actual and serious, so we do not expect a future government not to adapt to the goals included in the revised action plan, which was also prepared by the previous cabinet,” Pollák explained, as quoted by SITA.
Source: SITA
Compiled by Radka Minarechová from press reports
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