The public works scheme has been highly beneficial for the Roma community in the past four years, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said on Thursday after he had a meeting with Flórián Farkas, President of the National Roma Self-Government (ORÖ) as part of which they reviewed the agreement between the Government and the organisation.

The Prime Minister confirmed that the mobilisation of the hidden resources is the best solution to the European shortage of labour. In his opinion, the Roma community constitutes a major resource of Europe, and of Hungary in it, and we must therefore concentrate on preparing them for their participation in the labour market.

The Prime Minister stressed the importance of public works for the Roma community, underlining that there were some 57,000 people out of the 300,000 participants involved in the programme who had never previously been in employment of any kind and for whom this was their first opportunity of work.

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Viktor Orbán also announced that, according to plans, he will request Flórián Farkas after the municipal elections to work as the Prime Minister’s commissioner, which the President of ORÖ accepted.

In the context of the agreement entered into with ORÖ, the Prime Minister reiterated that most of the undertakings had been achieved: 35,000 young Roma were given assistance to complete their secondary education, some 7,000 young Roma have received scholarship grants for the continuation of their studies annually since 2011, and 170 people are now on their way to obtaining a degree since the launch of the Christian Roma Specialisation College Network. Additionally, some one thousand Roma women have been trained as kindergarten assistants.

The Prime Minister mentioned improved access to vocational training and health care as the areas to be developed in the future.

(Prime Minister's Office)