The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAE) is constantly promoting in the bilateral relations and the international forums the importance of completely eliminating any kind of discrimination against the Roma people and advocates, via the tasks assigned to it, the national efforts with regard to the social inclusion of the Romanian citizens belonging to this minority, a MAE release says.
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The Foreign Ministry's clarifications are made in context of celebrating the International Roma Day.
According to the source, "April 8 is an opportunity to draw attention upon the progress recorded as regards the Roma inclusion and the fact that this process implies sustained efforts from all of the relevant actors and needs a broad, deep understanding of the issue's dimension."
The MAE release also stresses that one of the goals of the Presidency of Romania to the European Union's Council is "to stimulate social solidarity and cohesion, by promoting policies on combating discrimination, intolerance and xenophobia".
In this respect, on 4 and 5 March was staged in Bucharest the High level Conference on EU Framework on National Strategies for Roma Inclusion, which provided the occasion to debate the ways to continue the inclusion process at European level after the current EU strategic framework reaches the deadline in 2020, the participants tabling possible orientations for the future of this process.
The initiative to celebrate the International Roma Day occurred in 1971, on the occasion of the first International Congress of Roma Everywhere, that took place in London. In Romania, alongside the other Eastern European countries the date of April 8 was dedicated to the Roma Day starting with 1990.
AGERPRES .