The inclusion of the Roma in the overall society is a really important indicator of how North Macedonia, as a country negotiating for EU entry, is successful in uniting diversity.
Over the past years, much has been done across Europe to protect Roma culture, language and respect for Roma fundamental rights. However, the poverty, discrimination and exclusion that have historically affected the Roma are still visible across countries in Europe, in the European Union and beyond, including negotiating countries.
North Macedonia must know that the EU recognizes many difficulties and discrimination in terms of the economic life faced by the Roma in the country.
The EU requires all countries to prepare strategies, national actions and action plans for the inclusion of Roma, including North Macedonia.
In view of the situation in North Macedonia, the EU provides significant support for the Roma inclusion strategy adopted by the Government in 2022, and that document should not only be on paper, but it should be ensured that this strategy is applied in practice.
And all that requires political will, coordination and partnership. And we are witnesses that the Roma community, instead of rising, is sinking more and more into apathy, poverty, hopelessness.
The state somehow puts all the priorities of the Roma community "in the background". It is very important that the Roma community in recent years, except as a "voting machine", has no political influence either in the Legislature or in the Executive. What can an MP from the Roma community "revolutionarily" change in the Parliament?
In the Executive Power, it is even more tragic. Not a single ministerial or deputy ministerial position for the Roma. The kind just for "smearing the eyes" without any political decision-making power, as an advisor in Kovacevski's Cabinet and National Coordinator.
The government should get much more serious about solving and implementing the Strategy for the Roma if it is a "black spot" in the negotiations for joining the EU?
The strategy for the Roma was adopted two years ago, but the National Action Plans are still waiting for the "amen" and have not yet been adopted. We wonder when the 2024 Budget will be adopted at the Parliament session, where and how much is planned for the implementation of the NAPs. When they are adopted to know how much Budget is needed. And September has already passed. After all, it seems that in 2024, a separate Budget for the NAP will be the work again
Part One... To be continued
