Bilboard Introduction
For one, for education for all
After the first Roma Summit in Brussels on which participated over 400 Roma and quite good number of representatives from the European commission, the president of the European commission Jose Manuel Barosso, officially promised that European Union will devote bigger intention to the Roma issues. Barosso suggested Integrated joint platform with the goal – integrating Roma in EU.
At this moment, the whole Europe debates for the Platform for Roma inclusion, that will bring concrete actions for equal access to education, health insurance, housing, employment, equal human rights, respect to the Roma culture, as well as proper spending of the money intended to the Roma people. Quite ambitious idea because it unites many areas and in the same time, it shows that European Union has no sense towards Roma people. The most interesting thing is that European Commission decided to work for Roma, no it doesn’t want them close to itself because this institutions persist to create Roma unit inside its structure, unit in which should be participating Roma experts. Why this institutions acts like this, it’s still unknown, but to justify in front others and to cover the shame of the problems that were accumulated for years, European Commission found so called solution for the issue of discrimination. To be honest, EU no more, no less, decided to give five million euros for the pilot project named “Pan European coordination for Roma integrative methods”.
The project is combination of everything, from education till housing, issues that are covered in the process called Decade for Roma inclusion. Why am I saying ambitious, so hard and accumulated problemst to be solved foe five million euros on 12 million Roma who live in the EU member countries. With the simple mathematics operation known as dividing, we can see that every Roma will get 4,16 euros per year. And just imagine how much money from that budget should cover for the personnel working on the administration from the European Commission.
Therefore, the inclusion in this case is quite poor. When you will compare this treatment by the EU with the process of the Decade of Roma inclusion, you will notice that it is almost the same as the poor participation of the state itself for affirmation of the priorities of the Decade.
Education as main problem among the Roma population, in 90 percent is promoting with the help of the NGO’s, or to be more precise, with the money from foreign donors and sources. The state itself have given a small amounts of money for Roma people. The programs in the institutions in Macedonia either completely ignore the Roma or there are just few realizations according to the scheduled plans and programs. In both cases you can see the real willingness for solving the Roma issues. How many of that documents that are signed, are implemented and how not implementing of those documents influence over the life of Roma people? Where is the problem, in the administration or in the permanent discrimination?
So the tolerance, promoted as acceptance and living along with the differences, doesn’t succeeded. It doesn’t succeeded neither in Europe, nor in Macedonia. I’m saying doesn’t succeeded in Macedonia too because we still have segregation in education, segregated inhabitants and social life with a lot of prejudices. Are we plan to change something is the question that all must ask to ourselves.
For the prosperous future, tolerance, quality education and most of all inclusion!!
For better and simpler life – ONE!
Sebihana Skenderovska
