VZCZCXRO0382
RR RUEHIK
DE RUEHUP #0824 3211437
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 171437Z NOV 09
FM AMEMBASSY BUDAPEST
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 4658
INFO RUCNMEM/EU MEMBER STATES COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS BUDAPEST 000824 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR EUR/CE JAMIE MOORE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PHUM SOCI EU HU
SUBJECT: 200 CIVIL SERVICE JOBS FOR ROMA -- HUNGARIAN STYLE 
AFFIRMATIVE ACTION 
 
¶1. (U) Summary: Despite the public service hiring freeze, the 
GOH launched an affirmative action project that aims to 
induct 200 Roma college graduates into civil service 
positions by January 1, 2010.  EU grants will cover salaries 
for the first year, after which the GOH hopes to add the new 
employees permanently to their roles. Opposition party 
representatives threaten to relieve the new hires promptly 
following their anticipated election win in April.  End 
Summary. 
 
¶2. (U) On September 19, PM Bajnai announced a new and 
"tangible" Roma integration program. The program includes 
eradicating 100 decrepit Roma settlements, reviving 100 after 
school educational institutions called "tanodas," and hiring 
200 Roma professionals into the civil service.  Though 
several interlocutors have expressed their doubts, the 
Government Center for Public Administration and Human 
Resource Services (KSZK) has set an aggressive schedule for 
this first-time affirmative action-like effort. 
 
¶3. (U) Of the nearly 500 applicants, 287 met the initial 
criteria and are required to pass a civil service exam before 
being placed. On November 12, KSZK held a seminar in Budapest 
to lay out the timeline for testing and hiring. The large 
hall was packed with attentive Roma applicants from all 
corners of the country. The Minister of the Prime Minister,s 
Office, Csaba Molnar, told the crowd that the government 
needs talented, well-prepared people to take part in the 
service of their homeland.  "You will not be just a civil 
servant, but role models to your people."  He explained that 
this program was a big step toward resolving "the most 
important social problem since the change of the system, the 
Gypsy issue." 
 
¶4. (U) The timeline is short. To prepare for the recently 
introduced civil service exam, applicants may participate in 
a web-based module. The test, which has written and oral 
sections, will be offered in early December. The project 
director, Istvan Templen, told the crowd that, "many of you 
will be assigned by January first." While the bulk of the 
positions will be in Budapest, KSZK is surveying vacancies at 
the 13 regional government offices. 
 
¶5. (SBU) In Hungary, where ethnicity is private information, 
some observers believe this program is anti-equal opportunity 
and potentially illegal. In a center-right party (FIDESZ)-led 
Budapest Atlantic Forum breakfast meeting last month, 
Parliament,s Human Rights Committee Chairman, Zoltan Balog, 
deemed the program a "very bad solution."  Balog claimed that 
the Socialists were using the initiative as a campaign tool. 
Though Balog was receptive to the targeted recruiting of Roma 
for police positions, he stated that, "this hiring practice 
for civil service jobs discriminates against white 
Hungarians."  He alluded that newly hired Roma will only be 
on the government rolls for four months (Note: Until after 
the April national elections, which the opposition 
center-right Fidesz party is widely expected to win. End 
Note). 
 
¶6. (SBU) Comment: Politics aside, the room at the recent KSZK 
seminar was packed with hopeful and encouraged Roma college 
graduates -- who represent a mere one percent of the Roma 
population. Despite a vocal opposition, it appears that the 
Roma civil servants will be hired four months before the 
general election next spring, leaving the new, likely 
center-right, government faced with a fait accompli. End 
comment. 
LEVINE