The government is committed to the elimination of poverty and the integration of the Roma, the Justice Minister said on Friday in Tiszabura, at one of the venues of the Roma integration programme ‘Integrating Settlements’.

After a presentation of the programme for the ambassadors accredited to Budapest of the European Union’s Member States, Judit Varga told the Hungarian news agency MTI that the basis of the project coordinated by the Hungarian Charity Service of the Order of Malta is the organisation’s Presence programme which was awarded the Hungarian Heritage Prize. Instead of implementing a series of pre-determined tasks, the project seeks practical solutions to the problems that emerge locally, and identifies the necessary measures by setting up social diagnoses. This is the so-called “diagnosis-based approach”.

Another important element of the programme is that it provides assistance for the needy from conception all the way to employment, she added.

She said the government’s long-term concept is to provide assistance for 300 disadvantaged settlements over a period of ten years; this year, work has started in the first thirty settlements.

She highlighted that the coordinators of the programme have sufficient experience to know what it takes to achieve change in one settlement or another. The most important church charitable organisations and civil-society organisations active in the settlements also take part in implementation, she said.

The Minister pointed out that her goal is to show EU ambassadors what is happening in the country, how much the Hungarian government does in the interest of eliminating poverty and the success of Roma integration. This is why they are showing the programme in Tiszabura on Friday to the ambassadors accredited to Budapest of EU Member States. They will also view a carpentry workshop, a sewing shop and the local nursery school.

During the visit, Attila Steiner, Minister of State for EU Affairs said it is important that ambassadors also acquaint themselves with the countryside, not just with Budapest.

He added that the ambassadors hear a great deal about issues of the rule of law in Hungary. For instance, in the Sargentini Report an entire chapter is dedicated to Roma integration and the situation of minorities. This is why it is important to provide them with “first-hand” information which they can forward to their respective foreign affairs ministries.

Miklós Vecsei, appointee of the Prime Minister pointed out that there is no single method that can be used everywhere. Each settlement requires different interventions. One thing all settlements have in common is, however, that the focus is on children, he observed.

In the selected 300 settlements some 270,000 people live in total, most of them are of Roma origin. The population’s educational level and employment rate are low, and the percentage of homes without basic conveniences is above the national average.

(MTI)