Greeting the attending, Meho Omerovic, Chairman of the Committee on Human and Minority Rights and Gender Equality, emphasised the importance of the implementation of the Roma Social Inclusion Strategy in the Republic of Serbia which is part of the Action Plan for Chapter 23. He stressed that the chief obstacles to the socio-economic integration of the Roma have still not been eliminated and the normative basis for the implementation of long-term measures for poverty reduction and exercise of essential equality of the Roma minority is still not complete.

Orhan Usein, Team Leader of the Roma Integration 2020 Action Team at the Regional Cooperation Council, spoke about the objective of the Roma Integration 2020 project – reducing the socio-economic discrepancies between the Roma and non-Roma population in the Western Balkans and Turkey, advancing the governments’ institutional responsibility to include and realise specific goals for the social integration of Roma through general policies, as well as monitor the national budget and funding of public services. Usein added that a gathering such as the he is attending is a positive practice example hoping that public hearings would become regular practice within the Strategy.

Vitomir Mihajlovic, President of the National Council of the Roma National Minority, reminded the attending of the previous national plan “Strategy for the Improvement of the Status of Roma 2009-2015” which failed to give the expected results as regards a lasting improvement of the position of Roma. He stressed that despite there being sensibility and political will in the Republic of Serbia, the Roma national minority continues to come up against challenges in the school system, health care and social welfare. He also said that he hoped common goals such as poverty reduction and suppression of discrimination against the Roma i.e. the creation of conditions necessary for the Roma’s full access to human rights, will be achieved by the 2025 Strategy.

Having reviewed the Action Plan, the representatives of relevant ministries and the National Employment Service then presented the results of its implementation and pinpointed the priority measures for the period 2017-18 in the fields of education, employment, housing, health care and social welfare.

At the end of the public hearing the participants concluded that the matter at hand requires a continued implementation of the passed legislation and regulations, concrete instructions should be delegated from the central to the local level of government, more active cooperation between the ministries as a tried and proven mechanism and indicator of good practice in the implementation of the objectives of the Roma Inclusion Strategy, encouraging members of the Roma national minority to declare themselves as such and establishment of a coordinating body to tackle the collation of data and enable targeted research on the position of Roma in the Republic of Serbia.

The public hearing was attended by the members of the Committee on Human and Minority Rights and Gender Equality, representatives of the Regional Cooperation Council, relevant ministries, Office for Human and Minority Rights, Secretariat for Social Policy, Demographics and Gender Equality of the Provincial Government of Vojvodina, National Employment Service, Social Inclusion and Poverty Reduction Unit, National Council of the Roma National Minority and representatives of the EU Delegation in Serbia.