Robert Bosch Foundation supports Roma-project of FUEN

It is the first time that the Robert Bosch Foundation is supporting a project of the Federal Union of European Nationalities (FUEN), with 25,000 €. Fulfilling the eligibility criteria for funding from this well-known foundation in Stuttgart is in the words of FUEN-president Hans Heinrich Hansen “An accolade for our project concept and for the commitment of FUEN to improve the situation of the Sinti and Roma in Europe.

The grant is meant as start-up funding for a pilot project, with which the largest and most important European minority organisation, based in Flensburg, is making a sustainable contribution to improve the situation of the Sinti and Roma. Based on the guiding principle “Solidarity with the Roma – minorities help minorities”, decades of intercultural experience as well as the skills of minorities as intermediaries and bridge-builders are used in more than 15 subprojects. These projects range from using the integrative potential of sport competitions and artistic activities, school and education projects, but also initiatives to produce energy from biomass, make compost for organic garden farming and the cooperative marketing of garden produce by the Roma themselves.

The project partner of the initiative that is based on the participation of the minorities in Schleswig-Holstein and Denmark, the community of the Hungarian Germans and the Roma-self-government in Hungary, is the Hungarian Ministry for Human Resources, which is responsible for Roma affairs. The ministry supports the first pilot phase of the FUEN-project in Hungary with a complementary financial contribution and will create the conditions for lasting EU-funding for the FUEN-project by adopting a corresponding budget line in its operational programme in the new programming period for the EU Structural Funds from 2014 onwards.

Background

In its focus country Hungary FUEN works in close coordination with the Ministry for Human Resources, the Hungarian embassy in Berlin and with the minority organisations and their national self-governments. As the driving force behind the adoption of a “Roma-strategy” of the European Union during the Hungarian EU presidency two years ago, Hungary is the first and most important partner for FUEN and its president, where it comes to “go from words to action and to make a concrete, visible and tangible contribution for the Roma by improving their everyday life.”