ERGO Network General Assembly 2025
We held our annual General Assembly on 28-30 May 2025 in Prague, Czechia. This year’s Assembly, hosted by Slovo21 and RomanoNet, was particularly important for us as our members and staff gathered to explore ERGO Network’s new branding and experience Roma culture during the Khamoro Festival organised by Slovo21.
The assembly brought together our members from 25 European countries. During the fully packed days, we engaged in discussions, shared the news, projects, and ups and downs. This General Assembly was a little different from the rest, because we also brought in some external meetings. In addition to Khamoro, we also met with the Czech Governmental Council for Roma Affairs, a branding agency, and new participants coming for the Jekhipe conference. All of this is below.
From Visual Identity to Cultural Activism
The first day of the General Assembly was dedicated to sharing members’ news and exploring ERGO Network’s new branding and visual identity. We were lucky to have Mirna Silajdzic, the founder of Love Your Mother consultancy, who was behind the rebranding process of ERGO Network, but also the branding of Roma Week and our new ROVA project. Mirna could share her firsthand expertise and motivated our members to think of visual identity as a tool to communicate their work in the best possible way.
The day continued with the Jekhipe project “Using Culture to Fight Antigypsyism” in cooperation with Slovo 21. The official event began by focusing on the Czech context, where various activists from across the country shared their work and experiences. Later, the discussion shifted to the European context, where our members, Saska Jovanovic from Italy, Bianca Galusca from Spain, and Nina Trollvige from Sweden, spoke about the specifics of their work in their respective countries. And this is not all! To conclude our day with even more Roma culture, we attended the Khamoro festival at La Fabrika and enjoyed beautiful music performances by bands from Czechia, Greece, and Spain.
Elections and New Members
The next day, the assembly continued with a statutory session, during which our members voted on the Strategy of the ERGO Network until 2030, as well as the Annual and Financial reports for 2024. Our Network grew bigger and stronger as we also elected the new associate members: Ara Art (Czechia) and 1Hungary (Hungary). We also welcomed the European Media People organisation to become our new Friend of ERGO.
And our associate members from last year – Romni APS (Italy), Suomen Romaniyhdistys (Finland), and Trajosko Drom (Sweden) – were promoted to the full member status and finally could also participate in the voting.
Festival KHAMORO Parade
The definite highlight of our assembly was the Festival KHAMORO parade, which started at Wenceslas Square in the Old Town Square of Prague. It was unforgettable to see the Roma music and dancing from all across Europe filling the city of Prague, and we were so proud to get to be a part of it and share our identity with the world. You can see some more photos from the parade here
Our journey continued to the Liechtenstein Palace, where we met with Lucie Fukova, the Czech Commissioner for Roma Affairs; Mr. Enrico Lakatoš, a diplomacy student and member of the Roma Affairs’ Council; and Michal Miko from RomanoNet. Czechia. The Czech Governmental Council for Roma Affairs shared their insights into their impressive work done over the years. They shared both their achievements and their aspirations for the future in the Czech context, and we could draw inspiration from the progress that has been made in Czechia.
Conclusion
The 2025 General Assembly concluded with reflections on the shared experiences. Gabriela Hrabaňová, ERGO Network Director, closed the day expressing her gratitude to all participants and extended an invitation to the next General Assembly. We left the ERGO Network General Assembly 2025 in Prague with new inspirations, new friendships (and strengthened old ones), tools on how to fight against antigypsyism, and, most of all, with gratitude for the strong network that we have.