The chairwoman of theGerman Green party, Claudia Roth, and the minister of integration of the Rheinland-Pfalz region, Irene Alt, will visit Bulgaria on 10 and 11 April. They will be accompanied by Romani Rose, chairperson of the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma.
The visit was organised by the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs in collaboration with the country’s embassy in Sofia and comes literally days after the International Roma Day, marked on 8 April.
The delegation will discuss the current situation of Roma in Bulgaria and will meet the president Rosen Plevneliev and the minister of interior of the caretaker government, Petya Purvanova. Moreover, the German representatives will hold talks with members of the civil society and non-governmental organisations involved in Bulgarian and European policy on Roma.
Earlier this year, Markus Löning, German Commissioner for Human Rights Policy and Humanitarian Aid, also visited Bulgaria with the aim of intensifying bilateral cooperation in the field of human rights policy. One of the main topics of discussion during Löning’s visit was the situation of Roma in the country.
The ministry of integration of the Rheinland-Pfalz region announced that the visit to Sofia is part of a broader one, involving also Belgrade and the Serbian town of Vranje. In Serbia, the delegation will have discussions with Prime Minister Dačić and Deputy Prime Minister Suzana Grubješić.
It was also announced that the German delegation plans to visit Roma neighbourhoods in both countries as a way to “get an impression of the actual lives of people there”.
