We all know that the Republic of Bulgaria is one of the economically weakest members of the EU, along with Romania. It "hurts" a lot when you know that you are part of the European family, and yet at the bottom from an economic point of view. That is why Bulgaria is a country that makes efforts for its citizens to stay in the country, and not to emigrate to Western European countries. And that is why the frustration of keeping his citizen in his country is even greater. This makes the main "culprits" for those conditions to be found immediately. And how according to some of their logic - the "culprit on duty" for all those situations are always - the Roma! Here, too, the car is already moving unstoppably "downhill". Segregation, discrimination, isolation, distancing, violation of basic human principles in all spheres of Bulgarian society are a daily occurrence in that country. The "trouble" is even greater if we have, say, elections and a struggle for power among the Bulgarian political factors, there is always a patriotic rhetoric - anti-Roma discourse. Because if the Roma are "sorted out", Bulgaria will immediately stand on its feet and from tomorrow it will be a wonderful place to live! To make matters worse, while everyone outside Bulgaria is "pointing the finger" as a state that in every way violates the basic rights of Roma, inside Bulgaria most of the organizations (including the Bulgarian Roma NGOs) are somehow "blinking "And are very quiet in their reactions to those conditions. They know whether the state is trying in some way to silence him with "financial" infusions or something else.
And that is why I in this column as President of the International Roma Union - IRU, and above all as a Roma man, who reacted regularly, sent protest notes and reactions to both Bulgarian and European institutions due to visible discriminatory acts by Bulgaria to Those Roma, I feel the need to put an end to those injustices against the Roma people in Bulgaria, but also for the Roma everywhere in Europe.
That area is actually a remedy - an instrument that can be very useful. The therapy is called - Roma Ombudsman - Contact Point!
It is the Roma Ombudsman and his team at the European level who should play the main role in preventing that - a growing anti-Roma campaign!
From a European point of view, the matter is crystal clear: a wall around ethnically defined Roma settlements is a clear case of ghettoization, regardless of how the majority of the population or the authorities argue. Segregation of Roma children in Ulliptipa, discrimination in the workplace, up to special health regimes and protocols only in Roma settlements during the Pandemic with Covid 19 are crystal clear directions, which that team of the Roma Ombudsman - Contact Point will have as a fact and proof of who to work on.
And the "self-righteousness" of Bulgaria is even more visible now when it vetoes my country where I live - Macedonia, for the start of negotiations with the EU for its entry. It disputes the history, language, people, culture of a nation that everyone knows is peaceful without any pretensions to foreign territories and geostrategic goals.
Imagine the opposite situation, if for example Macedonia and Serbia were in the EU, and Bulgaria was waiting to join the EU, how would Bulgaria feel if Macedonia and Serbia "combed" a bit after Bulgaria's past during World War II when parts of Macedonia and Serbia were under the protectorate of Bulgaria as an ally then Germany's main power? Then the guarantor would have asked for "forgiveness" for past historical mistakes, and they would not have hit each other so hard on their "Bulgarian identity".
All in all, my conclusion is that Bulgaria is "mature and baked" to answer before the European Court of Discrimination against Roma and the IRU will insist on finding a solution and making the Roma Ombudsman work - Contact Point! The time is ahead of us!
