From local action to shared ambition: ROVA grantees meet in Brussels
ROVA – Roma civil society organisations promoting EU Values – project supports Roma and pro-Roma civil society organisations to strengthen their work for Roma equality, build cooperation and engage in advocacy. Through its grants, ERGO Network supports organisations working in different national and local contexts. This networking meeting brought together ERGO’s ROVA grantees to share their experience, learn from one another and explore what they could achieve together.
Held in Brussels from 28 September to 1 October 2026, the meeting connected organisations working on the ground with one another and with the European policy debates that shape their work.
For organisations busy delivering projects, there is rarely enough time to step back, compare approaches and discuss difficulties with peers. The meeting made room for those conversations, with a programme built around participants’ experience and the questions they brought with them.
Sharing the work behind the projects
A Project Fair opened the exchange. Grantees presented the problems their projects address, the people they work with and the changes they hope to achieve. They were also invited to share something they were proud of, alongside a challenge or lesson learned.
The format encouraged participants to go beyond a list of activities and explain the choices behind their work. Posters, photographs and campaign materials gave others a way into each project, helping organisations identify shared concerns and approaches they could use at home.
Organisations operate in different political and social contexts. A conversation about a local initiative can nevertheless open up a wider discussion: how to build trust, bring organisations together or turn community concerns into demands that decision-makers will hear.
Connecting community work with EU policy
Policy sessions explored how grantees could connect their work with national and European advocacy.
ERGO Network colleagues led discussions on EU advocacy, social and anti-poverty policies, the next EU Multiannual Financial Framework and monitoring national Roma strategies.
These subjects have practical consequences for organisations and the communities they serve. Funding decisions affect which initiatives can continue. National strategies set commitments that civil society can scrutinise. Advocacy creates opportunities to bring people’s experiences into policy debates.
The sessions offered tools and examples to help grantees navigate these processes and consider where their organisations could have an influence.
Learning from one another
Two Open Space sessions let participants shape the discussion themselves. They could bring a question, share a method or ask others for help with a dilemma.
This made room for the issues that emerge during project work and do not always fit neatly into a planned agenda. It also recognised grantees as a source of expertise for one another, drawing on their relationships with communities and their experience of putting ideas into practice.
“Our grantees came together to show what the work looks like on the ground. This space matters because it allows people to speak from practice, not from a distance. We saw how their local work connects to our wider work, and how sharing it strengthens both their mission and ours. That is why this kind of space should stay, and why the ROVA programme should continue to support our collective work,” told us ROVA Project Grant Manager Mihai Oancea.
Conversations continued outside the sessions, with shared meals and informal time offering further opportunities to get to know potential collaborators.
What happens after the grant?
The programme also included a visit to the Parlamentarium and a closing session at ERGO Network’s office with Atanas Stoyanov, Policy Officer at the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Justice and Consumers.
The question of what comes next ran through the meeting. Grants give organisations resources to act; sustaining that work also depends on relationships, shared knowledge and the ability to plan ahead. Bringing ERGO’s ROVA grantees together created space to develop those connections and consider how cooperation across borders could strengthen their work for Roma equality.
