Government on Strategy for Roma Integration

It is necessary to speak about the observance of laws and public order no matter whether it's a Roma settlement or a village, stated Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini (Smer-SD) in Svidník, eastern Slovakia, on Tuesday after an away-from-home session of the Cabinet. The Government acknowledged the monitoring report on meeting the Strategy for Roma Integration by 2020 at the session. The Slovak premier said that it was necessary to hold talks with the Labour Minister Jan Richter (Smer-SD) on setting the social system as well as with Interior Minister Denisa Saková (Smer-SD) on observing law and order as well as displaying decent behaviour. Pellegrini added that another big issue that needs to be discussed is litter in the Roma settlements. The Interior Minister Saková pointed out that both the Interior Ministry and the Office of the Government Proxy for Roma Communities, which submitted the monitoring report, wanted to present individual areas, planned measures and also launch the cooperation with towns and villages needed for implementing the measures. "We're creating tools and policies to integrate minority groups into normal life, and it is up to the municipalities to implement them," said Saková. According to the monitoring report on the Strategy for Roma Integration by 2020, the entities concerned have met or are meeting 75 out of the 142 activities and measures that should have been implemented last year. Of the total sum of almost €82,67 million allocated for the Roma issue in 2017, more than €62 million was spent on increasing the employment rate among the Roma community, which is the priority area within the integration strategy. The money to this effect was allocated both from EU funds and the state budget. In this regard, Saková stressed that the ministry would like to boost the efficiency of drawing EU funds available for these purposes in the future.