Czech cabinet unsure whether Romanies's situation improved

The Czech government has no precise information on whether it was successful in the fulfilment of the tasks within the Romany Decade, according to a report on the implementation of the Decade goals in 2007 CTK has obtained.

The main goal of the international project is to improve by 2015 the state of Romanies’ integration in society and their economic situation.

Dzamila Stehlikova (junior government Green Party, SZ), minister in charge of minorities and human rights, is to submit the report to the government on Wednesday.

"It is evident after three years of the implementation of the programme that individual ministries are unable to effectively assess the fulfilment of the action plan," the report says.

According to it, individual ministries cannot assess precisely the results of their work aimed at helping Romanies because statistics does not know the term "Romany."

It is impossible, for instance, to count precisely how many Romanies have found jobs thanks to the government programme, the report says.

It is also not easy to determine who is Romany and who is not because some people who can be considered Romanies do not declare themselves as such.

In the national census in the Czech Republic in 2001, some 11,700 people declared themselves Romanies. However, according to estimates, about 250,000 Romanies live in the Czech Republic, with one-third of them living in "socially excluded" localities.

Apart from the Czech Republic, also Hungary, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia and Croatia have joined the Romany Decade project that was launched in 2005.

The programme was initiated by the World Bank (WB) and the Open Society Institute.

The government Council for Romany Affairs has proposed that an inter-ministerial debate be conducted to clarify statistical terms. The WB project that is to end this autumn is also designed to help define the terms, the report says.

Field research should be aimed at improving the effectiveness of the authorities’ work in solving the problems of Romanies’ long-term unemployed and lifting the obstacles that prevent them from finding jobs in the labour market.

According to the report, the Labour and Social Affairs Ministry should create a system for the assessment of the effectiveness of its programmes aimed at Romanies in the future.

Labour offices should in the future be able to report on how successful they were in finding jobs for Romanies.

According to the first version of the plan, these data should have been available by 2006 already. Beginning 2005, the share of supported employment of Romanies should have increased annually by 5 to 10 percent compared to the non-Romany population.

Statistics is also lacking as regards the improvement of the situation in Romany housing, the report says.

The Local Development Ministry earmarked last year 50 million crowns for subsidies for the supported flats. However, the ministry does not have statistics on how many Romanies have received the help.

The ministry also allotted last year 798 million crowns for the construction of 1376 new rental flats for low-income families. However, the State Housing Development Fund (SFRB) has no information on whether the programme has improved the access of socially-weak Romany families to housing.

International non-governmental organisations have also criticised the Czech Republic over the implementation of the Romany Decade goals.

They recently published a report in which they assessed the fulfilment of the decade tasks by individual countries in 2007 on www.romadecade.org.

According to the report, the steps planned in the Czech Republic to improve the situation of Romanies are rather vague that gives the government and the regional and municipal authorities enough space for inactivity.

However, the international report assessed positively the establishment of the government Agency for Social Integration that works in the socially-excluded Romany localities.

The agency will test the programmes aimed at Romanies’ integration in society in 12 pilot areas of Bohemia and Moravia.