The host of the annual ministerial meeting, the fourth in a row after the adoption of the "Declaration of the partners from the Western Balkans for the integration of the Roma within the EU enlargement process" - Poznań Declaration, is the Republic of North Macedonia. At the meeting, ministers from North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania and Kosovo highlighted the good practices from their countries as well as their views on future steps.
The ministerial meeting was opened with welcoming speeches by Jovana Trenčevska, Minister of Labor and Social Policy, Oliver Varhei, Commissioner for Enlargement and Neighborhood Relations from the European Commission, Anna Liermann, Minister of State for Europe and Climate in Germany, David Geer, Ambassador of the European Union in Republic of North Macedonia and Željko Jovanović, the director of the Roma Initiative at the Open Society Foundations.
"We should strive to provide the young Roma with full access to education, health, housing, employment and participation in the green agenda," said Varheyi.
He pointed out that there are a number of successful projects that involve the Roma and contribute to the improvement of their standard of living, but he also expressed his conviction that the countries in the region can do even more. But the Director of the Roma Foundation, Željko Jovanović, mentioned to those present that "How many more such meetings will there be, to repeat the same words, as in the past twenty years"?
