From 8 to 13 April, the 9-member delegation of the Czinka Panna Roma Cultural Association attended the European Roma Week in Brussels, at the invitation of Lívia Járóka, EP Vice-President. In the official delegation, besides the staff, project implementers, and leadership of the Association, the most important civil partners of the Czinka Panna Roma Cultural Association (Khetanipe Association for Roma Cooperation, Gypsy Social and Cultural Association, Public Benefit Association of Transdanubian Gypsies) and a head of a Roma minority self-government (Bük) attended.
The official program began on 8th with the opening of the Roma Week, organized by the European Roma Organization, ERGO. In the evening, we closed the day with great conversations, giving an opportunity for the members of the delegation to get to know each other even better. We had some time for sightseeing in the next morning, so we could first visit the main square and sights of Brussels and then the Hungarian Institute. We also visited the interactive exhibition of the Parlamentarium, and the Romani Design exhibition hall in Brussels. We closed the day in the European Parliament, where the Parliament launched the program series of the Roma Week with an official reception.
On Tuesday, at the Museum of European History, we saw an interactive exhibition on the process of creating the European Union and its vision. In the afternoon, the official visit of the visitors’ group to Parliament began, during which Lívia Járóka introduced the operation of the Parliament and the most important places for her work. A part of the visitor group could participate in one of the most important discussion of the European Roma Week, which was about antiziganism. Then we attended a photo exhibition opening. After the visit, there was an opportunity for informal conversation and work discussion with the Vice-President.
On Wednesday morning, we continued the discussions with Lívia Járóka on Hungarian Roma NGO participation in the development of the new European Roma Framework Strategy. Several forward-looking suggestions were made jointly by the delegation and Vice-President Lívia Járóka. For the rest of the day, a part of the delegation attended a conference organized by the European Commission on the new European Roma Framework Strategy and its current evaluation. At this conference, it was possible for László Jakus, president of Czinka Panna Roma Cultural Association to be the first among the civil organizations of the European Union to propose a new Framework Strategy (an international press release was published about this by the office of Lívia Járóka, Vice-President of the EP). Most of the delegation travelled home on Wednesday.
The program of the official delegation of the Czinka Panna Roma Cultural Association ended on Thursday morning, attending a meeting of the EP Human Rights Committee (LIBE), where we could see the presentation of the Sargentini report and the first reactions to it. Lívia Járóka firmly defended the Roma integration efforts in Hungary in her post and refused the unjust statements of the report in connection with the Hungarian catch-up process. After the meeting, we attended Kinga Gál’s international press conference.
All members of the delegation considered the visit and the series of the discussions to be successful and it was especially a great joy for us that the name of the Czinka Panna Roma Cultural Association was heard in the Parliament as the first NGO proposing in the development of the new European Roma Framework Strategy.