The Roma minority should trust in the rights afforded them by the constitution and break its victim mentality while the majority should stop sweeping Roma problems under the carpet, Hungary's Minister of Human Resources told “The future of the European Roma” conference on Monday.

Hungary's policy to help the Roma catch up with the mainstream will only be successful if attitudes on both sides of the mainstream-minority divide change, Minister Zoltán Balog told a conference organised by the Hungarian Embassy in France and the Strasbourg municipality for diplomats and NGOs.

Hungary has legal guarantees against discrimination on the basis of gender, race or religion, he said, adding however that much needs to be done to change attitudes to the Roma community.

"Police should recognise racially motivated hate crimes, the prosecution should present them appropriately to the courts, which then should pass correct verdicts..." Minister Balog said.

He stressed the importance of getting one side of the divide to understand the other, noting that history of the Roma is now a subject in Hungary's national curriculum. A positive image of the Roma must be developed in the media and its middle class should be supported, he added, noting that the minority made up 7% of Hungarian society, two thirds of which lived in deep poverty.

Hungary's policies are not specifically targeted at the Roma but rather the poor in general, however the Roma minority is given a special focus in the implementation of national programmes, he said.

It is hoped that the state's takeover of local-run schools should help Roma children gain access to a level playing field, he said. In a European context, efforts should be made to boost the employment of the Roma to the European average, which could increase the community's GDP by 3-4%, the Minister said. While ensuring the right to free movement for the Roma within the EU, efforts should be made to eliminate slave labour, prostitution, and the abuse of social services, the Hungarian Minister added.

Mayor of Strasbourg Ronald Ries stated that since 1990 Roma are arrive in “Europe’s capital city”, primarily from Romania. Special Representative of the Secretary General for Roma Issues at the Council of Europe Jeroen Schokkenbroek presented his organisation’s projects helping integration of Roma in Hungary, while Hungarian Deputy State Secretary for Social Inclusion Katalin Langerné Victor talked about the results of Hungary’s Roma policy. From the NGO sector representative of the Autonomy Foundation István Dandé and Roma issues expert István Forgács spoke, mentioning local government initiatives in Besence and Váralja as examples to follow and talking about the importance of conscious Roma policy.

(Ministry of Human Resources)