The Minister of State for Social Inclusion believes that Hungary and Montenegro may successfully cooperate in the resolution of the situation of the Roma; the Western-Balkans country is aware that the issue of minorities must be addressed.
On Monday, Zoltán Kovács had talks in Montenegro with Minister of Human and Minority Rights Suad Numanovic, among others, and delivered a lecture on the Hungarian social inclusion strategy.
After his meetings, the Minister of State told MTI, the Hungarian News Agency by telephone that Montenegro is currently presiding over the initiative Decade of Roma Inclusion Programme. The purpose of the programme extending from 2005 to 2015 is to develop cooperation between EU Member States and countries awaiting accession, mostly countries in the Western Balkans, which may facilitate social inclusion and the cause of the Roma.
However, the countries involved have to date only been able to achieve partial results, and it would be more appropriate, also from the viewpoint of the European Roma framework strategy, if this process were as integrated as possible, and close cooperation between the countries concerned is therefore crucial, he emphasised.
The Minister of State said that, similar to the whole of the European Union, there are Roma in every country also in the Western Balkans. In addition to the Roma that have lived in Montenegro over an extended period, there are also Kosovo Roma communities whose unresolved situation has long caused problems as the legal status of the Roma living in one of Europe’s largest refugee camps remains unsettled, he explained. He added that while in the case of the traditionally settled Roma communities in the country, issues similar to those emerging in the rest of the countries of Europe must be addressed, the management of the situation of the Roma with an unsettled legal status is an international affair.
Zoltán Kovács stressed that the Roma issue and social inclusion are pan-European questions; there are Roma everywhere in Europe, from Ireland to Bulgaria, from Sweden to Italy, whether forming an integral part of the local population as settled communities, or as refugees. The Government of Montenegro, too, is aware that the Roma issue must be dealt with as a priority topic not on account of pressure to meet EU criteria but because the question of the cohabitation of nationalities, minorities and the majority must be addressed the same way as in any European country, the Minister of State reiterated.
The State Secretariat for Social Inclusion reported earlier that 1 per cent of the population in Montenegro claim to be of Roma origin. The greatest challenge is not posed by the local Roma but by the high number of Roma refugees with no personal identification documents whose legal status is unresolved. In the absence of documents, these some five thousand refugees are unable to integrate into society and this is therefore a major burden for Montenegro.
The local authorities are arranging organised trips to Kosovo so that the refugees may initiate the resolution of their status in Montenegro with the aid of the documents to be procured there, the State Secretariat reported.
(MTI/EMMI)
