In the period March 1st – 3rd 2008 took place in Oradea the meeting of the European Roma Grassroots Organisations Network – ERGO, of which secretariat is hosted by Spolu International Foundation in Utrecht, Netherlands. The meeting was organized by Ruhama Foundation at the Roma Education Center in the university’s campus and it benefited of the participation of the Spolu International director – Ruus Dijksterhuis and the ERGO general secretary – Valeriu Nicolae.
In December 2007, the ERGO representatives have met the European Commissioner for Justice, Franco Frattini and the European Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities, Vladimir Spidla and discussed the perspectives of a future European policy for Roma. Moreover, the ERGO representatives attended a series of meetings with members of the European Parliament and the meetings have been concretized in the European Parliament’s resolution entitled “Towards a European Policy for Roma”, emitted on the January 31st 2008. The debates from Oradea will be focused on the ERGO actions in 2008 and the analyses of the Roma situation at European level.
The European network ERGO reunites nongovernmental organisations from Netherlands, Romania, Czech Republic, Turkey, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Albania, Slovakia and Moldova. ERGO is ran by Valeriu Nicolae, Romanian diplomat of Roma origin, member of the Steering Committee for Round Tables on Poverty within European Commission and European expert on Roma issues. ERGO is an organisation regularly and systematically consulted by the European Commission regarding social inclusion reports and accession reports. Ruhama Foundation became a member organisation of ERGO one year ago, as recognition of the successful programs of social inclusion for Roma implemented in Bihor County.
The ERGO priorities are to elaborate a European policy for Roma social inclusion, to increase the number of Roma human resources especially at local level, to increase responsibility of Roma communities and to eliminate the social stigmata associated with Roma communities.
