The report also acknowledges that the European Roma Framework Strategy was conceived under the coordination of the Hungarian Government. Hungary was the first Member State to complete and submit to the European Commission its own inclusion strategy, the National Social Integration Strategy.

According to Zoltán Balog, State Secretary for Social Inclusion, life for the Roma in Hungary is indeed hard at present, as is life for non-Roma Hungarians, given the simple fact that the economic crisis affects everyone. The State Secretary pointed out that the Government had recently launched a programme worth HUF 5 billion (EUR 17,250) which was designed to help the most disadvantaged, both Roma and non-Roma Hungarians, to break out of the situation they had been compelled to live in to date.

The strategy also contains a three-year action plan (for the years 2012 to 2014) with specific integration programmes with deadlines, the appointed responsible members of government and allocated resources. By virtue of the EU and local funds allocated for the purposes of the action plan, we shall have spent some HUF 200 billion for the implementation of integration and inclusion tasks in Hungary by the end of 2014.

The State Secretary highlighted that while no government was able to offer a full and comprehensive solution to all the problems that may emerge, the events that had taken place during the previous government had not re-occurred in the past two years in Hungary, such as for instance, the Roma killings, demonstrations designed to provoke fear or the estate programmes doomed to utter failure. The fact that there have been no atrocities committed against the Roma in Hungary in the past two years is not merely the result of the introduction of more stringent rules in the assembly legislation but is also a consequence of the firm action taken by the police in both directions. One direction represents the type of crime that is most typical of those living in extreme poverty and is often manifested in ethnic conflicts. The other course of action represents the measures taken against those who wish to hold the Roma in Hungary collectively responsible for the hopeless situation that is still characteristic of the countryside in Hungary.

The programmes launched by the Government and the National Social Integration Strategy have reached local Roma leaders who may, in their own communities, give hope to those who have the desire to break out of the difficult situation they are in. They are therefore not interested in generating conflicts but in managing conflicts and seizing their newly-found opportunities. This is another reason why there is peace in Hungary today between Roma and non-Roma Hungarians, a few local conflicts apart.

The role of the National Roma Government as a mediator is key in guiding the Roma in Hungary towards the path of cooperation. The State Secretariat is working hard to convince the majority that cooperation is a worthwhile goal for all and a far more beneficial solution for everyone than the generation of conflicts.

Source: kormany.hu