VZCZCXRO1281
PP RUEHAG RUEHAST RUEHDA RUEHDBU RUEHDF RUEHFL RUEHIK RUEHKW RUEHLA
RUEHLN RUEHLZ RUEHNP RUEHPOD RUEHROV RUEHSK RUEHSR RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHSF #0183/01 1061007
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 161007Z APR 09
FM AMEMBASSY SOFIA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 5927
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 SOFIA 000183 
 
SIPDIS 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PHUM KPAO AINT BU SIPDIS
SUBJECT:  BULGARIAN ROMA:  LOST IN (NON)INTEGRATION 
 
¶1.  (SBU) SUMMARY:  As Roma communities across Bulgaria commemorated 
International Roma Day, the government sluggishly moved to update 
the 1999 Framework Program for Roma Integration.  Ten years after 
the adoption of the government's first policy document on Roma 
integration, results are meager.  Roma continue to live largely in 
isolated communities, receive low quality education in de facto 
segregated schools and suffer disproportionately high unemployment. 
According to government officials, the new draft Framework Program 
emphasizes social and economic issues, which are now viewed as 
primary obstacles to Roma integration.  Whatever the merits of the 
government's new initiative, Roma are not impressed.  Some Roma 
groups charge their recommendations to policymakers were ignored. 
They suspect the government is readying what they term another empty 
document, with typically uncertain prospects for implementation, in 
a sensitive and politically charged time ahead of national 
elections.   END SUMMARY. 
 
PIONEERING, BUT SLOW-MOVING 1999 FRAMEWORK ON ROMA 
--------------------------------------------- ----- 
 
¶2.  (SBU) Adopted in 1999, the Framework Program for Equal 
Integration of Roma is the first strategic document in which 
Bulgaria's post-Communist government outlined its major policies and 
principles to integrate Roma over a period of ten years.  It 
included measures to prevent discrimination, encourage employment, 
desegregate Roma schools, improve housing and healthcare, ensure 
Roma access to media, as well as to preserve and promote Roma 
culture and ethnicity.  Developed with broad Roma participation, the 
document formed the basis for numerous government action plans. 
Bu, the government did not allocate specific budget o implement 
goals, instead relying heavily on funding from international donors, 
such as the WorldBank, the Soros Foundation, the European Bank for 
Reconstruction and Development and others. 
 
¶3. (SBU) By far the government's most serious accomplshment from 
the list of measures in the Framework Program is the 2003 adoption 
of anti-discriminaton legslation.  Roma NGOs were among the first 
nd most active applicants in court under the new lw.  They are 
also among the most frequent petitiners to the Anti-Discrimination 
Commission, estabished in 2005 to enforce the law.  Citing figures 
that only 65,000 Roma were officially registered o receive 
unemployment assistance in 2008, goverment officials insist that 
unemployment among Roa has dropped significantly  Officials 
attribute this progress to a number of programs implemented by the 
Ministry of Labor and Social Policy aimed at improving Roma 
qualification and increasing their competitiveness on the labor 
market.  Officials also talk up the government's recently-enacted 
policy to limit timelines for social welfare, which they claim broke 
the cycle of dependency and encouraged Roma initiative.  These 
conclusions drastically conflict with the views of NGOs, which the 
government accuses of purposefully inflating statistics to attract 
donor funding.  In the area of housing, the NGOs criticized the 
government for delaying the development of architectural plans and 
the building of infrastructure in Roma neighborhoods. 
 
 
THE GRITTY REALITY TEN YEARS LATER 
---------------------------------- 
 
¶4.  (SBU)  Despite ongoing integration efforts, around half of 
Bulgarian Roma, roughly estimated at 800,000 or slightly over 10 
percent of the country's population, live in segregated ghettos. 
These neighborhoods are populated by shanty-style illegal homes, 
which are below basic sanitary standards, with makeshift electric 
wiring and no running water.  Roads in these neighborhoods are often 
unpaved and ad-hoc.  Recent immigration from smaller towns to larger 
cities, particularly Sofia and Plovdiv, has only increased the 
strain on Roma neighborhoods.  Almost 70 percent of Roma attend de 
facto segregated schools.  Roma children are also disproportionally 
represented in state run institutions for children, which have faced 
stinging criticism recently for poor care and conditions.  In part 
due to the low educational attainment and discrimination, Roma 
continue to face significant challenges in the labor market. 
According to NGO reports, unemployment amongst Roma in some areas is 
as high as eighty percent. (The vast disparity in NGO and government 
statistics has much to do with political agenda-setting, but also 
the methodological quirks and anomalies of how unemployed are 
registered and counted.)  Interestingly, Roma in rural areas are 
moving into homes in towns and villages virtually abandoned by the 
ethnic Bulgarian population - part of the consequence of the huge 
demographic changes underway here as part of the countryside 
essential de-populates. 
 
 
THE ROCKY ROAD AHEAD 
-------------------- 
 
¶5.  (SBU)  In July 2008, the Government started to update the 
Framework Program, due to expire in 2009, with broad involvement of 
Roma NGOs, who were initially encouraged by the government's 
invitation to participate in the working group.  Early optimism soon 
gave way to disappointment when Deputy Prime Minister Emel Etem, who 
chairs the government's council coordinating ethnic and demographic 
issues, restructured the working group to reduce Roma representation 
 
SOFIA 00000183  002 OF 002 
 
 
from 16 to 4 NGOs.  Most Roma boycotted the working group leaving 
only one person as the representative.  The community grew even more 
frustrated with the government's drafting process when the deadline 
for completion was postponed by five months to April 2009.  Some 
Roma activists worried that Roma issues would be exploited for 
political purposes in the upcoming election campaign without any 
tangible benefits for the community. 
 
¶6.  (SBU)  Government officials expect cabinet ministers to approve 
the new Framework Program ahead of the election campaign due to 
start in mid-May.  Arguing that Roma remain marginalized from 
mainstream Bulgarian society because of poverty and poor educational 
skills, officials stress in the new draft the need to develop social 
and economic policies for poor families regardless of their 
ethnicity.  The new strategy includes provisions for pre-school 
education for bilingual children to complement the recent 
decentralization of school budgets and management.  To address 
housing, officials strive to encourage local municipalities to make 
funds available for lower-income families, including Roma.  Like the 
1999 Program, the current draft is not backed up with a specific 
financial commitment and relies on each Ministry and municipality 
providing resources amid competing priorities.  Some Roma activists 
criticize the government's draft as lacking specificity and vision 
to address future economic challenges.  They also charge the 
document does not recognize Roma as a separate ethnic group, nor 
takes into account the role of discrimination against them.  Some go 
as far as charging that the draft is itself discriminatory. 
Meanwhile, Bulgaria's small but vocal nationalist/populist parties 
perpetuate stereotypes against Roma, and claim the government is 
doing too much for Roma. 
 
COMMENT 
------- 
 
¶7.  (SBU) COMMENT:  Despite continued friction over the substance of 
the new Framework, government officials joined with Roma to 
commemorate International Roma Day in various events around the 
country.  Ambassador McEldowney issued a public statement calling 
for reaffirmed commitment and concerted effort on the part of the 
government, civil society and business to advance tolerance and 
equal opportunities.  The latest drafting effort clearly illustrates 
the difficulty of developing a much needed consensus policy to 
integrate Roma.  Even once a document is hammered out, its 
implementation will be an even greater challenge.  End comment. 
 
Karagiannis