European Union is Serbia’s most active donor, specially in the area of inclusion of Roma into society, their education, employment, healthcare, housing and legal rights, said Head of the EU Delegation to Serbia Michael Davenport at the Workshop on Political Inclusion of Roma.
Davenport assessed that Serbia achieved some results in Roma inclusion, but that more focus was needed on registering the legally invisible by removing barriers for registration of all children at birth.
It is necessary to take measures in order to increase attendance and decrease drop-out rates of Roma children in schools, as well as to create more possibilities for employment, of women in particular, Davenport said.
According to Suzana Paunovic Director of Government’s Office for Human and Minority Rights, with EUR4,8 million, EU have supported the Roma inclusion programme aimed at employment, collection of documents needed to solve housing issues.
Since 2009, over 20.000 Roma have been entered in birth registers, thus being provided with an opportunity to exercise their rights guaranteed by law. Last year, 369 Roma were enrolled in secondary education, whereas some 1.700 Roma, out of which 730 women, were actively included in employment measures, Paunovic said.
