News

Bernard Rorke: What Can the EU Do for Roma in the Face of Rising Populism and Prejudice?

Budapest, 20.3.2013 22:37, (ROMEA) It’s nearly two years since the EU Framework for National Roma Integration Strategies (NRIS) was launched during the Hungarian EU Presidency. Back then, Commissioner Viviane Reding described it as a “huge step forward for millions of Roma around Europe.” When the Commission reviewed the strategies submitted by Member States in May 2012, the rhetoric was more muted. The best the Commission could say was that the strategies amounted to a “first step.” One year on, in a climate of deepening poverty and rising intolerance, there is a grave danger that the prospects of the Framework making a difference to Roma people’s lives will simply dissolve. The newly published policy brief Beyond First Steps provides a concise overview and analysis of developments to date, as well as a clear set of recommendations for the European Commission to keep the Framework on track.  full story

Giving Roma people the opportunities they deserve as EU citizens

Brussels, 20.3.2013 0:29, (ROMEA) Never in recent history has a European minority been more neglected and discriminated against. For decades Roma people all across Europe have been faced with systematic discrimination and denied the most fundamental rights to decent living conditions and opportunities. The lack of integration of Roma is not new. EU member states have long expressed their concerns about the situation but lacked the political will to truly act on it.  full story

Council of Europe Congress launches the European Alliance of Cities and Regions for Roma Inclusion

Strasbourg, 20.3.2013 0:25, (ROMEA) A major priority of the Council of Europe, to improve the situation of Roma people, will move a step closer to being realised with the launch of the European Alliance of Cities and Regions for Roma Inclusion during the 24th Session of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities.  full story

Roma Exclusion in Europe: Do you know? Do you care?

Brussels, 19.3.2013 23:48, (ROMEA) European Roma Grassroots Organizations Network (ERGO) staff and members walked out, last Friday, on a European Commission (EC) conference with the aim of signalling to the organizers and speakers that systematically ignoring Roma people and Roma experts during the process of formulation of policies targeting the Roma is unacceptable.  full story

videoBulgarian man shoots dead three Romani people before committing suicide

Sofia, Bulgaria, 19.3.2013 19:44, (ROMEA) On Monday evening in Sofia a man of Bulgarian nationality allegedly shot dead three members of a Romani family who were his neighbors before committing suicide. Media reports say the tragedy took place in a part of the capital predominantly inhabited by Romani residents.  full story

Czech Republic: Skinhead to serve life in prison for murdering elderly couple

Hradec Králové, 19.3.2013 15:55, (ROMEA) The Czech Press Agency reports that state prosecutor Eva Prskavcová has announced that the sentence of life in prison has taken effect for 19-year-old Tomáš Vít, who brutally murdered an elderly couple in Trutnov last year. The High Court in Prague was supposed to have reviewed the verdict tomorrow, but the young defendant unexpectedly withdrew his appeal.  full story

videoGreek footballer banned for life from national team after Nazi salute

Athens, Greece, 19.3.2013 14:17, (ROMEA) At last Saturday's Greek League match, 20-year-old midfielder Jorgos Katidis of AEK Athens celebrated his winning goal against Veria by giving the Nazi salute. He has been banned for life from the national team.  full story

Valeriu Nicolae: The Almighty Church of Social Inclusion

Bucharest, 19.3.2013 11:02, (ROMEA) Over the last ten years I have taken part in about 50 major European Commission conferences on Roma issues. Many were in the early years. I thought initially that conferencing was a way to achieve change. Last year I went to just one EC conference. After the meeting I wrote a piece about structural racism that was published by the European Voice. The “Extraordinary Meeting on Roma” was extraordinary proof of structural problems and ingrained racism within the Commission. Only two speakers out of 29 were Roma.  full story

videoLatvia: Hundreds celebrate Nazi "legionnaires", Russians counter-protest

Riga, Latvia, 18.3.2013 23:40, (ROMEA) Hundreds of Latvians marched on Saturday 16 March 2013 through the capital, Riga, to celebrate armed Latvian SS units who fought side-by-side with the Germans during WWII against the Soviet Union. Anti-fascists and representatives of the Russian minority protested against the "legionnaires' march", as is now traditional.  full story

Czech town installs CCTV cameras after fabricated claims of assault

Břeclav, 18.3.2013 22:55, (ROMEA) Town councilors and police patrols in the Czech town of Břeclav are praising the CCTV system that has been running in the town since the new year. They have managed to solve 40 illegal acts thanks to the footage, from shoplifting to vandalism.  full story

Roma Crisis Committee to Czech EdMin: Equal access to education for Roma

Prague, 18.3.2013 20:31, (ROMEA) Young Romani people associated with the Crisis Committee (Krizový štáb) have written an open letter to the Czech Education Minister and Prime Minister in which they express their support for inclusive education and the necessary measures which the Government and the Education Ministry should adopt to ensure equal access to education for all citizens of the Czech Republic. "Currently Romani children continue to be disproportionately enrolled into 'practical primary schools' that educate their pupils according to the primary education program's appendix for pupils with light mental disability," states the open letter. News server Romea.cz publishes it in full translation below.  full story

videoSlovakia: MPs, Mayor of Bratislava unable to block neo-Nazi march

Bratislava, Slovakia, 16.3.2013 22:13, (ROMEA) Approximately 100 demonstrators did not manage to blockade a march today by promoters of the ultra-right who gathered in Bratislava on the occasion of the 74th anniversary of the creation of the fascist Slovak state. Around 200 followers of the ultra-right Slovak Solidarity association (Slovenská pospolitost - SP) met in front of the office of Slovak President Ivan Gašparovič after 14:00 to march through the streets of Bratislava to the grave of wartime leader Jozef Tiso at the Martinský Cemetery. Tiso was sentenced to death for war crimes and executed in 1947.  full story

Czech Republic: Jan Horvátko, another Olah king, passes away

Prostějov, 16.3.2013 17:43, (ROMEA) News server iDNES.cz reports that on Wednesday, 13 March, yet another Olah king, Jan Horvátko (nicknamed Bobko) passed away after a long period of health problems. Jan Lipa of Ostrava, who shared the post of king with Horvátko, also passed away last October. Horvátko's funeral was held today at 9 AM in Prostějov's main cemetery.  full story

"I don't want my children to feel like foreigners in their own country"

Czech Republic, 16.3.2013 0:07, (ROMEA) Not quite one year ago, the monthly Romano Voďi devoted an entire issue to the theme of identities in which ethnologist and social anthropologist Zdeněk Uherek reviewed the issue of the plurality of identities in his column "Beneath the Surface" ("Pod povrchem"). The first issue of Romano Voďi this year has returned to the topic of identity construction and the mechanisms through which identity is realized, this time through the lens of the recent Czech presidential election and its reception among members of the Romani minority.  full story

French Interior Minister: Romani integration not succeeding

France, 15.3.2013 23:21, (ROMEA) French Interior Minister Manuel Valls (Socialist Party) said today that Romani people coming to France from other EU states evidently do not want to integrate. In his view, the government's efforts to facilitate housing and work for Romani immigrants have met with a lack of interest.  full story

Czech President's remarks aggravate Journalists' Syndicate

Prague, 15.3.2013 22:07, (ROMEA) The Czech Journalists' Syndicate (Syndikát novinářů) is alarmed by the fact that Czech President Miloš Zeman compared some of the Czech media to neo-Nazi militants and organized crime in his inaugural address and has sent an open letter to him in response. "This downgrading of a significant part of the Czech media is all the more striking because it is our firm conviction that the better part of the Czech media are precisely those who have steadfastly, systematically pointed out the dangers linked to the infiltration of organized crime into politics and the threat to democracy in the Czech Republic posed by extremist movements," reads the letter, which is signed by Syndicate chair Adam Černý.  full story

AI: The President’s visit to Ostrava should send a strong signal against discrimination of Roma

Ostrava, 15.3.2013 17:03, (ROMEA) The new President of the Czech Republic is visiting the city of Ostrava today. In Ostrava and the Czech Republic at large, Roma are experiencing widespread discrimination in access to adequate housing, education, healthcare and protection from violence and harassment.  full story

Slovakia: Blockade of Neo-Nazi march in Bratislava tomorrow

Bratislava, Slovakia, 15.3.2013 16:28, (ROMEA) On Saturday 16 March a non-violent blockade of a neo-Nazi march will take place in Bratislava. The blockade will start at 14:00 on Náměstí SNP.  full story

Czech Republic: Inter-ministerial group on Roma has new members

Prague, 15.3.2013 16:08, (ROMEA) At its cabinet session on Wednesday, the Czech Government took up the nomination of David Tišer and Emil Voráč as new members of the Czech Government Inter-ministerial Commission for Roma Community Affairs. Tišer is director of the ARA ART, o.s. association and has long worked as an activist promoting Roma integration, fighting against the discrimination of Roma and advocating for the media to report on the life of the Romani minority in the Czech Republic. Voráč is the chair and director of the o. s. Khamoro – Romské integrační centrum (Roma Integration Center) organization, which offers socially excluded Roma a drop-in facility for children and youth, field social work programs, professional social counseling and temporary shelter.  full story

NPR: A 'Recovering Skinhead' On Leaving Hatred Behind

Philadelphia, 14.3.2013 16:31, (ROMEA) As a teenager, Frank Meeink was one of the most well-known skinhead gang members in the country. He had his own public access talk show, called The Reich, he appeared on Nightline and other media outlets as a spokesman for neo-Nazi topics, and he regularly recruited members of his South Philadelphia neighborhood to join his skinhead gang.  full story