Brussels, 02/10/2013 (Agence Europe) - A new programme to promote the integration of the Roma will involve an approach that combines issues of accommodation, education and employment. According to a press release from the Council of Europe, the European Commission's partner in the operation, together with the European Alliance of Cities and Regions for the Inclusion of the Roma, this project will be launched in Hungary on Friday 4 October 2013.
The “ROMACT” project has been set up for a year in five countries (Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, Italy and Slovakia). It will focus on, “enhancing the capacity of the local and regional authorities, as well as their political determinate, to develop and implement strategies and policies promoting the integration of the Roma”. A budget of €700,000 will be available for the initial phase of the programme.
Hollande provides assurances that French policy respects Roma
In France, the controversy involving the question of the Roma has proved a constant thorn in the side of its government. On Wednesday 2 October, a week after reprimands from the European Commissioner for Justice, Viviane Reding, President François Hollande affirmed that France respected the Roma and was working towards their integration, when opportunities and the will exist.
Commissioner Reding had criticised the French government for not sufficiently using the European funds available for integrating this community. Nonetheless, she found herself under fire from several French politicians on both the left and right, such as Claude Bartolone, who claimed that Reding embodied Europe's “bogey woman” and represented, “everything that drove us to no longer love Europe”(our translation). (SP/trans.fl)