Czech MEP Falbr criticizes government at Romani mediators' meeting

The international ROMED project, in which 16 different countries are participating, is holding part of its series of training sessions in Prague from 25 – 27 January. The training program is administered by the Council of Europe in cooperation with the European Commission as part of their programs aimed at addressing the Romani issue across Europe. In the Czech Republic, the ROMEA civic association is responsible for the project.

“The program will make use of mediators with Romani roots who can speak the language of a particular Romani community as needed. Thanks to this skill, they can establish contact with the parties involved in any situation and make communication and cooperation more effective. We are focusing on sensitive areas in the relations between Romani people and public institutions,” explains Aurora Ailincai, who runs the program at the Council of Europe. “It is completely key that the mediator behave neutrally while gaining the trust of all involved. We are doing our best to prepare those participating in the program for situations which are often tense.”

The first day of the conference was dedicated to the cooperation between mediators and regional-level politicians, the representatives of local and regional authorities, and other representatives of other important institutions. The conference opened with remarks by Czech MEP Richard Falbr (Czech Social Democrats – ČSSD) who is responsible for the Committee for Employment and Social Affairs at the EP and follows the situation of Romani people in the Czech Republic.

Falbr’s remarks included the following: “I very much support and admire all of you who are dedicating yourselves to mediation and I know how complicated it is, especially right now in the Czech Republic. This is a widespread problem to which the Czech Government is closing its eyes. Education, employment, increasing financial literacy, preventing the creation of ghettos – this is just a fraction of what the government should be involved in. Instead, we have seen disruptive budget cuts and the rise of social unrest, to say nothing of the ultra-right.”

In addition to Falbr, Ondřej Klípa of the Office of the Czech Government addressed the mediators. Klipa is currently acting director of the office of the Czech Government Inter-ministerial Commission on Roma Community Affairs and of the secretariat of the Czech Government Council for National Minorities. Human rights activist Kumar Vishwanathan was also invited as a guest speaker and declared his general agreement with MEP Falbr’s remarks.

“We are not aware that the government is taking any steps on this at all. Moreover, the government has completely minimized its Human Rights Council, which is also supposed to focus on the Romani issue. Instead, its operations have been disabled,” Vishwanathan explained. “All subsidies are being cut and Romani assistants are being fired and replaced by bureaucrats who have no relationship to the community.”

Falbr, however, does not see the problem as merely about the low number of appropriately trained mediators available. In his view, it is necessary to view the question of Romani integration from all angles, which is why he claims he has long criticized the country’s demotivating social welfare system, which he says is abused in many cases; legislative loopholes like the poorly-written law on loan-sharking; the lack of standards regarding the maximum number of persons permitted to reside in a single apartment; and other matters which currently make it hard to institute systemic solutions. In his view, this has led to an escalation of social problems in society which often are not actually based in questions of nationality or race. He sees the role of the mediators as being able to negotiate a more objective view of the situation “between both sides”, which is why he considers them very important.

The conference block today and tomorrow will consist of the training of Romani mediators, who have traveled to Prague from Varnsdorf, Krásná Lípa, Karlový Vary, Lovosice, Chomutov, Karviná, Ostrava, Přerov and Olomouc. The training is being led by Calin Rus and Oana Nestian of the Romanian organization Intercultural Institute of Timisoara (Institul Intercultural Timisoara).

The ROMED program is a Council of Europe initiative, represented in the Czech Republic since August 2011 by the ROMEA civic association. A working group of 25 mediators has been created in the Czech Republic, just as it has in the other 15 European states where the program is taking place. The group members work as Romani advisors or coordinators at regional level, field social workers, teaching assistants, or representatives of civic associations. They regularly meet at seminars convened by the Council of Europe to acquire new information and skills in the field of mediation, to discuss their problems, and to confront the representatives of local administrations attending the seminars with the mediators’ efforts and procedures in the field of the social inclusion of Romain people. The pilot phase of the program will last in the Czech Republic until February 2012, when the Council of Europe will decide about its future direction.