Bulgarian PM: Roma Must Break Vicious Cycle, Help Themselves

Pictured: Local Roma parade for the International Roma Day in the southern town of Simitli remembering Roma victims of the Nazi Holocaust. Photo by BGNES

Bulgaria's government is providing all-out support for the integration of the Roma community in the country, according to Prime Minister Boyko Borisov who spoke on the occasion of the International Roma Day. 

"The Roma must break the vicious cycle of having someone else help them, and must exert their own efforts. The personal example is really important. There are young people among the Roma who study and who make careers. The message of these young people is that a person must work on their own in order to gain the trust of others – friends, institutions, and partners," Borisov told the Bulgarian Roma at the formal celebration of the International Roma Day organized by the Council of Ministers.

He declared further that the government has already managed to improve substantially the conditions in many of the kindergartens and schools attended predominantly by Roma kids, and is staging various educational campaigns, including on health issues and prevention of teenage pregnancy.

Borisov urged the municipal and local authorities to come up with integration projects on the local level to achieve sustainable results.

He explicitly stated that the government is focusing on anti-segregation and anti-discrimination in its Roma policies.

Friday's formal celebration of the International Roma Day was organized by the National Council for Cooperation on Ethnic and Demographic Matters, chaired by Deputy PM Tsvetan Tsvetanov.

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