Mr Orhan Usein, Team Leader, and Ms Aleksandra Bojadjieva, Policy Expert of the RCC Roma Integration 2020 Action Team responsible for Serbia, participated today at the inter-ministerial meeting convened by the National Roma Contact Point of Serbia, Ms Nina Mitic, Assistant to the Minister of Labour, Employment, Veteran and Social Issues. Representatives from the Ministry of Interior, the State Statistical Agency, the Ministry of Education, the Office for European Issues and the Office for Human and Minority Rights were also present, as well as the representative of the EU Delegation in Serbia responsible for Roma issues, Ms Mirjana Maksimovic.

The agenda was constructed with a view to coordinate and provide input to the upcoming Roma Integration 2020 project Task Force meeting, where the National Roma Contact Point of Serbia is expected to present the government’s views on the monitoring and reporting standards that have been piloted for the year 2016, on the possibilities for improved budgeting of Roma integration policies, and on the post 2020 perspective for the Roma integration policy at EU and regional level. The participants provided constructive input to all these issues and proposed a regional workshop on budget reporting specifically.

The EU Delegation representative informed about the upcoming Roma Seminar to be organized together with the government of Serbia on the 19th October and called upon the institutions to prepare for this important event that sets up the priorities for the country in the field of Roma integration within its EU integration efforts for the following two years.