Briefing the participants on the National Assembly’s activities as regards addressing the issue of legally invisible persons, Sajn stressed that the adopted Law amending the Law on Public Notaries enables the persons who have not realised their right to be registered into birth records and the right to citizenship to realise these rights quickly and free of charge.
Srdjan Sajn also stressed the need for cooperation between the National Assembly and Roma National Minority Council and international and non-governmental organisations when passing legislation which would provide grounds for the promotion of the position of the Roma community and its successful integration into society.
The representative of the European Union Delegation to Serbia, Yolanda San Jose and representative of the Government’s European Integration Office Stefana Lukic presented the measures envisaged within the IPA 2012 social development project, the component related to Roma inclusion. The measures envisaged by the IPA 2012 project include support in providing legal assistance for the registration into birth records and issuance of personal documents, support to Roma non-governmental organisations, education support of the Roma population via high-school scholarship programmes, as well as support to allocating adequate housing.
The continuation of the meeting was dedicated to discussing potential measures aimed at strengthening the Roma community’s engagement on the local level in the planning and implementation of local action plans for Roma inclusion, as well as potential measures aimed at strengthening dialogue within the wider Roma community and more efficient representation of Roma interests.
The President of the Roma National Minority Council, Vitomir Mihajlovic stressed the need to intensify the participation of Roma non-governmental organisations in the creation and realisation of strategies, programmes and projects for the improvement of the position of Roma in society. He stressed that some of the measures, such as the introduction of educational assistants and healthcare mediators on the local level, have given very good results, but that they have yet to be implemented in all local self-governments.
The participants of the meeting agreed that those implementing the Roma integration policy should work together on finding new ways to promote communication between the Roma national minority and local authorities, Roma National Minority Council, as well as Roma non-governmental organisations.