Past events – Page 7 – ERGO Network

Looking back at the Romani Week 2021

Looking back at the Romani Week 2021

For the first time, due to the ongoing pandemic, Romani week was postponed from early spring this year to an online version organized from 27 to 30 September. As a platform to raise concerns, but also exchange knowledge between policymakers, experts, activists and organizations, the event focused on debating post 2020 EU policies for Romani inclusion, advocating for specific subjects covering areas such as health, education, employment, online hate speech, environmental justice; and offerin specific recommendations on combatting antigypsyism, on the effectiveness of the post 2020 EU policies for Romani people, as well as on the national recovery and resilience plans.

ERGO Network was once again a proud co-organizer and partner to this edition of the Romani week, under the patronage of the European Parliament, European Commission and the Council of the European Union and its MEP hosts: Romeo Franz, Peter Pollák, Terry Reintke, Cornelia Ernst, Pierrette Herzberger-Fofana, Tomáš Zdechovský, Evin Incir, Rasmus Andresen, Anna Júlia Donáth, Dragoș Pîslaru and Sergey Lagodinsky.

ERGO’s participation started on 27 September with the speech of director Gabriela Hrabanova at the kick-off event Equality, Inclusion and Participation of Romani People by Law, highlighting that […] one of the ways forward is to have in place legislation […] having a specific directive, it increases chances to punish also specific forms of antigypsyism […].

Are the online platforms safe for Roma? – was the title of the second event during that day. Knowing that online hate speech has been steadily on the rise during the past decade, especially during the on-going Covid-19 pandemic, the event fostered a debate which led to identifying positive solutions, policy proposals, as well as advocacy points relevant for further addressing the new challenges arisen during the current pandemic that present new obstacles for a better inclusion of Roma in society. The event was hosted by MEP Pierrette Herzberger Fofana and co-organized by ERGO Network, Fundación Secretariado Gitano (FSG), European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC), and International Network Against Cyber Hate (INACH) as part of our common efforts of to tackle antigypsyist online hate speech.

The fight against institutional antigypsyism is for the first time at the centre of the new EU Roma Framework, marking the important shift in policy development approach on Roma inclusion at EU and national level. The second co-organized event by ERGO Network, together with the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma, European Roma Rights Centre, Roma Active Albania, Phiren Amenca and Equinet called Adopting National Roma Strategic Frameworks 2021 – 2030 – built on the results of the EU Platform for Roma Inclusion taking place on 21-22 September 2021 and used the results to inform about the follow-up steps by the European Commission in providing guidelines to Member States and the Enlargement region and of the civil society and other key stakeholders in the implementation and monitoring of the national Roma strategic frameworks.

The conference Addressing environmental justice in Roma communities – co-organized by ERGO Network in cooperation with the European Environmental Bureau and the European Public Health Alliance on 29 September focused on awareness raising of environmental determinants of health, such as environmental discrimination against Roma communities and its impact on health to set the issue on the European and national political agenda.

ERGO’s member Roma Active Albania co-organized and implemented the EU Award for Roma Integration in the Western Balkans and Turkey, 2021 which is supported by the European Union. The award ceremony Extraordinary People Promoting Equality through Employment – as this year the emphasize was on the importance of Roma employment, as a mechanism to break the circle of exclusion, was organized live in Brussels in the Concert Noble venue on 29 September in the afternoon (read more here).

Making EU funding & finance work for Roma – was the last event co-organized by ERGO Network on the 30^th of September. The very insightful event informed about different EU funds and programmes available for Roma inclusion and showcasing examples of partnership´ alliances for the efficient use of EU funds, including the example of Community-Led Local Development presented by ERGO Network member Daniel Grebeldinger from Nevo Parudimos, Romania.

Meeting during this Romani week online was truly unusual; however, it did not change the objectives of this event. More than ever, actions need to follow the words spoken those days online. Recognition of antigypsyism must be strengthened at national level as well as real political will to combat it. We now need strong cooperation between stakeholders for an effective implementation of the EU Roma Strategic Framework. Only together, we can develop strategic and coherent responses to help the Romani communities across Europe.

Romani Week 2021

Romani Week 2021/ Romano Kurko 2021

ERGO Network is proud to be once again a key partner of the annual Romani Week, this year held online for the first time!

Romani Week 2021 will be organised from 27th to 30th September. It aims to build on the work done during previous Romani Weeks and debate the post 2020 EU policies for Romani Inclusion. It will call upon the European Commission and EU Member States to put the fight against antigypsyism at the forefront of efforts for the social and economic inclusion of Romani people. Policymakers, experts, activists and organisations concerned with persistent antigypsyism in Europe will collaborate to organise the Romani Week. The week will consist of a series of events which will provide recommendations on combatting antigypsyism and continued structural discrimination, on the effectiveness of the post 2020 EU policies for Romani people and on the recovery and resilience national plans.

Patronage: European Parliament, European Commission, Council of the European Union

MEP Hosts: Romeo Franz I Peter Pollák I Terry Reintke I Cornelia Ernst I Carmen Avram I Pierrette Herzberger-Fofana I Tomáš Zdechovský I Evin Incir I Rasmus Andresen I Samira Rafaela I Anna Júlia Donáth I Malin Björk I Dragoș Pîslaru I Sergey Lagodinsky I Lucia Ďuriš Nicholsonová

Partners: European Parliament Anti-Racism and Diversity Intergroup, Council of Europe, European Roma Grassroots Organizations Network (ERGO), Roma Entrepreneurship Development Initiative, Centre of Resources for Social Inclusion CRIS, International Roma Youth Network TernYpe, European Public Health Alliance, Fundación Secretariado Gitano, Hildegard Lagrenne Foundation, European Environmental Bureau, Phiren Amenca, RomnoKher, Roma Active Albania, European Roma Equality Network, European Roma Rights Centre, E-Romnja, Center for Reproductive Rights, Bundesvereinigung der Sinti und Roma (BVSR), Eurodiaconia, Plataforma Khetane del Movimiento Asociativo Gitano del Estado Español, Unión Romani.

Aims:

Platform to raise concerns and knowledge exchange: To facilitate exchange and capacity building between Romani people, civil society, policymakers and officials.
Advocacy for specific thematic areas: Different thematic areas, such as health, education, employment, entrepreneurship, environmental justice. etc., including a general overlapping anti-racism theme to be covered during the European Union mandate post 2020.
Recognition of antigypsyism: The week will be an opportunity for experts and activists on the issue to advocate European and national policymakers to strengthen the recognition of antigypsyism as well as develop strategic and coherent responses.
Post 2020 EU Policies for Romani people: There will be an opportunity to discuss the future of a potential Romani Law and policies affecting the lives of Romani people, especially the post 2020 EU Romani Framework.

Attendees and speakers:

Policymakers and officials from European and national level;
Representatives of local authorities and large cities in Europe;
Civil Society;
Romani people and youth.

ERGO Network is co-organising the following events:

– Combatting Hate Speech Online (27/09, 13:00) – find the agenda here.

– Adoption of National Roma Strategic Frameworks (27/09, 15:00) – find the agenda here.

– Romani Environmental Justice Conference (29/09, 09:00)

– 2021 EU Romani integration award for Western Balkans and Turkey (29/09, 16:00)

– Making EU funding & finance work for Romani people (30/09, 13:00)

Have a look at the complete agenda.

Watch the events here.

ERGO’s Annual Members Meeting 2020

ERGO’s online Annual Members Meeting 2020

This year ERGO Network’s Annual Members Meeting took place under unique circumstances, forcing us to move online and to create as much exchange and networking on an online platform.

From 2-4 December 2020, ERGO Network met on Zoom with its members to analyze the work that has been done, reflect on this year’s special situation and how it impacted our work with Roma communities, and to deliberate about ERGO Network engagement in the upcoming years.

One afternoon was dedicated to building membership capacity, focusing this year on making the best use of online working environments and wellbeing of staff during the pandemic.

The meeting also provided the basis for a new 10-year strategic plan, while also introducing final steps for legally moving ERGO Network to Belgium.

The first day started with a welcome from Director Gabriela Hrabanova, board co-chair Daniel Stanislav and vice-chair Adriatik Hasantari. The board praised the flexibility, collectiveness and connectedness of the members during such an uncertain and though year.

During this day, participants attended breakout rooms designed to provide with updates and project presentations. Each of the four rooms, moderated by staff and members of ERGO Network, tackled ERGO’s core working areas of 2020, such as Roma in post-2020 European Frameworks, a Covid-19 study, our work on employment and the new projects “New Solutions to Old Problems” (NSOP) and “Peer education to counter antigypsyist hate speech online” (PECAO).

The second day invited participants to two working groups on employment and data collection. Amana Ferro and Carmen Tănasie from the ERGO Network Secretariat in Brussels provided participants with updates regarding the state of play of current and upcoming employment work, covering the main EU policy frameworks and the specific actions under the Youth Guarantee and ERGO Network’s Employment Campaign.

Isabela Mihalache, Senior Policy Officer, helped the participants to understand better the role of data collection in the delivery of our advocacy work.

The third day started with sharing about the past and looking at the present in order to set the ground for planning our future. The statutes of a new legal organization was discussed and agreement was reached to move the organization officially to Belgium.

Members then had an open space to share where they see ERGO now and where they want to see it in the future, laying the ground for the start of a 10 year strategy.

Launch meeting: New solutions to old problems

Launch meeting: New solutions to old problems – exchange of new type of approaches in the field of Roma integration

On 17-18 September 2020, the project team gathered online for the launch meeting of the project New solutions to old problems – exchange of new type of approaches in the field of Roma integration.

The objectives of the meeting were:

To learn more about the expectations and roles of partners
To introduce the Project Market and prepare for the selection of good practices
To discuss capacity-building needs of the partners to support developing the training and coaching activities
To introduce the common advocacy objectives of the project and start reflecting about national advocacy for better bottom-up funding
To get to know the EEA/Norway grants and its expectations towards our project
To publicly launch the project

The meeting started with a short recap of the aim of the project and the different work packages and continued with presenting the roles and expectations of partners, an introduction of the EEA/Norway grants & Fund Operator and their expectations towards our project.

We also had an introduction of the Project Market and Peer to Peer partnerships and of good practices in general (What makes a good practice? What are our criteria? What do the partners already have in mind?)

The first day of the launching meeting also targeted the capacity-building side of the project, so we had an introduction to the work package – communication & presentation training, learning academies, individual coaching, transparency criteria, project management toolkit.

On Friday 18th September we met to discuss the advocacy work package – funding research, national advocacy meetings, European meetings.

Also, we shared national funding situations and related national advocacy objectives and partners ( what are we working on already, who are our national partners, what are our aims?)

We also had an introduction to communication work package – project website, information sessions, social media campaigns, story-telling, project video, crowdfunding. In this session we discussed the communication requirements for partners and brainstorming on ideas to promote the project.

We also tackled the risk management: What can go wrong in the project and how can we deal with possible challenges.

The launching meeting ended with a short evaluation and suggestions for improving future meetings.

The project “New solutions to old problems – exchange of new type of approaches in the field of Roma integration” is funded by Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway through the EEA and Norway Grants Fund for Regional Cooperation.

Intersecting Realities

On 25 February 2020, ERGO Network together with Balkan LGBTQIA vzw organized an inspiring and mind-opening event in Mundo B, Brussels: the photo exhibition and conference ‘Intersecting Realities: Life stories of Balkan LGBTQIA+ Roma in Brussels’.

During the event, the book ‘My Story’ was launched, which features eight life stories about the experiences of LGBTQIA+ migrants from the Balkan countries, many of them Roma. The stories and portraits of the books were displayed in an exhibition, and some of the individuals portrayed in the book shared their powerful stories of racism, discrimination, but also love and support with the audience. The event was opened by ERGO Network Director Jamen Gabriela Hrabanova and Danny Jacqmot, Attaché of Equal.Brussels, which kindly funded the book project and the launch event.

The personal testimonies of Djenk Ejupi (North Macedonia) and Gerard Epure (Romania) were followed by a moderated debate on discrimination at the intersection of origin, ethnicity, gender and sexual orientation.

Lilly Dragoeva from the NGO Bilitis Bulgaria, Deszo Mate from Eötvös Loránd University, Hungary, Biser Alekov of Balkan LGBTQIA, Brussels, Isabela Mihalache of ERGO Network, Brussels and Szabolcs Schmidt of the European Commission, Directorate-General for Justice and Consumers, Unit on Non-Discrimination and Roma Coordination explained the concept of intersectionality, gave examples from different EU Member States, and discussed the European Commission’s efforts to tackle intersectional discrimination.

The event was a unique opportunity to bring the focus on a target group that has always remained in the shadow of the majority, considering their voice has not been heard so far.

If you are interested in obtaining a copy of the book, please Biser Alekov at Biseralekov@gmail.com