The European Union’s 5 million pilot project for the social inclusion of Roma has been officially launched today. Lívia Járóka MEP (European People’s Party) expressed her hope that the project would prove to be a good practice on which the European-level effort for enhancing the situation of Roma can be based.
The two years pilot project has been initiated by the three major groups of the EP and aims to promote the integration of Roma through educational, social and economic measures. The European Commission’s DG Regio launched the tender in three fields: early childhood education, micro-credit and raising awareness. Representatives of the three NGOs – Roma Education Fund, Polgár Foundation, Spolu International Foundation – that have won the tender signed their agreement documents with the European Commission today, thus officially launching the project.
At the signing ceremony Lívia Járóka (European People’s Party – Hungarian Civic Union) said that that many initiatives in the European Union known as „best practices” were advertised by the overoptimistic reports of national and local governments, or profit-driven lobby groups, so there was an urging need for real „good practices” on all three fields. Furthermore, Járóka expressed her hope that the project would be a success standing the probe of evaluation and that as the rapporteur of the European Parliament’s upcoming report on the EU strategy for Roma inclusion she would be able to build upon its experiences and results.