Brussels, 28. 04. 2009. - The World Bank liaison office in Brussels hosted the exhibition titled "In the Eyes of a Woman: Roma Portraits". In her opening speech, Lívia Járóka MEP (EPP-ED) spoke about the necessity of coordination among international organizations.
The European Union liaison office of the World Bank hosted an exhibition of photographs taken by American photojournalist Julie Denesha about Slovakian Roma. Lívia Járóka, the first Romani women to become Member of the European Parliament and board member of the World Bank financed Roma Education Fund opened the exhibition. In her speech she emphasized the need to coordinate much more effectively among the activities of international organizations in the field of Roma inclusion. She said it is more efficient to harmonize the peculiar scopes of duties of institutions, than conducting fragmented, parallel initiatives. The integration of Roma in terms of employment and education is one of the primary economic interests of the member states – Járóka accentuated. On the one hand Roma constitute a rapidly growing proportion of the active population on which the social security system lies, and on the other hand there is a huge potential in the labour-market reintegration of unemployed Roma – she explained. According to the MEP it is an indispensable prerequisite of social inclusion policies, to analyse and process reliable statistical data disaggregated by ethnicity.