Brussels, 21/10/2010 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday, the 47 member countries of the Council of Europe adopted a “Strasbourg Declaration” which provides for definite measures, including the creation of some 400 mediators' posts, to improve the lives of the 12 million Roma living in Europe. “We have the money to train over 400 mediators and about 100 lawyers next year,” said Council of Europe Secretary General Thorbjørn Jagland. The Declaration makes provision for the creation of a new European training programme for more than a thousand Roma mediators, who will give legal and administrative advice to communities and work to tackle access to housing, schools, health and jobs, and to link the Roma communities and civil society. In 2011, 440 Roma mediators will be trained. This figure could rise to over 1000 in the following years, depending on the available resources. The Council of Europe plans to train some 100 lawyers in 2011. A mid-term report will be published in May 2011. In the vote, Romania voted with the majority, but issued an interpretative reserve suggesting that responsibility for integrating Roma lay with host countries as soon as they stay legally for a period of more than three months. European Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding stated that the Roma “will be one of the priorities of the Hungarian Presidency of the European Union in the first half of 2011”. (B.C./transl.rt)