Saturday, February 10, 2007

Public hearing for the condition of the Roma in Macedonia

The Roma issue in Macedonia – lack of knowledge or lack of political will is a subject on the today’s public hearing which is held in the Assembly of Republic of Macedonia. According to the report of the European Roma Rights Centre and the National Roma Centrum from Republic of Macedonia, the Roma in Macedonia in regard of employment and conditions for work are in a very difficult condition.

The report states the 31% of the Roma in Macedonia do not have any education and as a result of that many of them are unemployed or do manual labor.

The president of the Assembly, Ljubisa Georgievski pointed out that Macedonia needs to get closer to the EU, and the issue about the Roma is an European issue and it needs to be resolved in that direction. The Roma are a constitutional category and because of that we all need to have political will to improve their condition, said Georgievski.

For the Foreign Affairs Minister, Antonio Milososki a strategic determination of Macedonia is a guarantee for the constitutional rights of all citizens. We must plaster efforts for applying of the Roma Strategy which represents implementation of special measures for equality in the society in order to achieve higher standard and educational level of the life of the Roma. He pointed out that there is a political will for solving of the problems of the Roma, but also that a complex approach is needed for improvement of life and socio-educational status of the Roma community.

The Euro-ambassador Ervan Fuere considers that the Government needs to implement a policy of international standards, and the NGO sector to conduct an effective program for resolving of the Roma status. He pointed out that the Roma representatives in the Parliament need to have a great role in all of this.

The representative in the European Parliament Eric Mayer pointed out that Macedonia is striving towards the EU and because of this it is very important to offer solutions for the Roma in the future.

The report of the European Roma Rights Centre and the National Roma Centrum from Republic of Macedonia also recommends for the Macedonian Government to take measures for improvement of the condition of the Roma through free training programs in order to increase the level of their employment. It also recommends adoption of measures for greater inclusion of the Roma in the educational process.

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