From ALJAZEEERA:
…There are three problems. The first is that all of these strategies are prepared without the participation of Roma people. They do not reflect the views of Europe’s estimated 10-12 million-strong Roma population, and they cannot. The European Parliament has only one person of Roma origin. Around 10 per cent of the Bulgarian population is Roma, but there is exactly one half-Roma member in the 240 seats of the Bulgarian parliament.
The second problem is that strategies for Roma integration are based on a guilt complex which European citizens only feel intermittently – in the face of specific campaigns. But once a BBC documentary or an award winning Czech film about the plight of Gypsies is replaced in our mind by a flood in the Far East, a drought in Africa or a child abuse case in the Catholic Church; the Roma case will be forgotten…
Finally, the third problem is that the majority of Gypsies are in Eastern Europe, where there is no money and where there are no traces of political correctness. While European money to address the Roma question will be accepted with resentment and spent in full, these funds will by no means be sufficient to move the Roma cause forward. A permanent flow of substantial funds through national budgets is necessary if the problem is going to be solved with money…
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