Roma for Europe

26/08/2026

There's an old stereotype in Europe: Roma are lazy. But as Daniela Samiri points out, the data tells a different story.

About 34% of Roma are unemployed. And here's the number that usually surprises people: 39% of Roma who work are still poor. They have jobs, but they're still poor. Economists call them "the working poor"—people participating in the labour market but trapped in economic insecurity.

The problem isn't laziness. It's how the system is built.

That's what our network is working to change—through financing and support for Roma-owned businesses, training for jobs employers can't fill and routes into work that actually pays.

Follow us to learn more.

25/08/2026

Ramiz Raćipović is a father of four from Zemun, a neighbourhood in Belgrade, Serbia. He trained as a road traffic technician, but his career took a different route. For years he worked in some of the city’s most prestigious restaurants. Then he decided to work for himself.

Two years ago, he turned his passion for food into a thriving business by opening Milin Ćošak, a fast-food restaurant named after his youngest daughter.

With support from the REDI Business Club, Ramiz has improved quality and expanded the business. Now he’s building a better future for his family—one meal at a time.

Follow REDI - Roma Entrepreneurship Development Initiative to find out more.

📷 Akos Stiller

24/08/2026

Today Ukraine marks its Independence Day. Roma have been defending that independence since the first day of the Russian invasion.

A quarter of Roma families surveyed in Ukraine have a member serving in the military. A third of those serving are volunteers—no one drafted them.

Viktor Ilchak is one of them. A tank mechanic wounded at the front, he puts it plainly: at the front there are no nationalities, only people fighting side by side for the same country.

Roma are fighting and dying for a Ukraine that, before the war, too often treated them as outsiders. Even now, a recent national survey on discrimination in the armed forces didn't ask about Roma.

But their sacrifices must be honoured—in who is remembered, who is compensated, who helps rebuild.

Roma families who stayed under fire are already finding it hard to claim compensation for war damage. As reconstruction begins, what Roma have given to Ukraine's defence should be recognised in how the country is rebuilt—and the exclusion they faced before the war put right. A Ukraine that does that will be a fairer place for all its citizens.

This Independence Day, we honour everyone defending Ukraine. That includes Roma soldiers—and it means standing by their communities when the war is over.

📷 Akos Stiller, Dmytro Myntyan

23/08/2026

"Political participation can take different forms at different levels," says Neda Korunovska.

In an interview with Roma News, she gives two examples of what that means in practice: parents engaging with the councils at their children's schools, and Roma businesses working through chambers of commerce to push for what they need.

Political participation happens long before anyone reaches a parliament.

But local structures are not yet inclusive—which is why organisation and collective action to make Roma voices heard at every level matter so much.

That work is what the Roma Foundation for Europe network exists to do.

21/08/2026

Every business starts with someone willing to take a risk on an idea nobody else believes in. World Entrepreneurs' Day celebrates the people who build something from nothing, create jobs and keep going when the odds are against them.

That story is too often overlooked when it comes to Roma entrepreneurs in Europe. For over a decade, REDI - Roma Entrepreneurship Development Initiative - has helped Roma entrepreneurs access the capital and support they are so often denied.

Among REDI's borrowers, one in three is under 35 and more than half are women—a new generation building their own economic future. Roma borrowers also repay their loans at higher rates than the majority population—a fact that challenges every assumption made about them.

The talent and ambition are already there. What's missing is a Europe willing to build the systems that let Roma entrepreneurs turn their ideas into thriving businesses.

Follow REDI - Roma Entrepreneurship Development Initiative to learn more.

📷 Akos Stiller

20/08/2026

Real skills, a real qualification and a direct route into steady jobs: the Roma Education Fund, part of the Roma Foundation for Europe network, has just qualified its first cohort of forklift operators in Bucharest. Congratulations to all! Proof of what targeted investment in Roma talent can deliver.

19/08/2026

A bus driver in Sofia, Bulgaria, was hospitalised after passengers smashed a window and assaulted him at the last stop on his route, in Hristo Botev, a Sofia neighbourhood with a large Roma population.

Sofia municipal councillor Carlos Contrera, deputy chairman of VMRO, a nationalist party, wants to shorten the route so it never enters the neighbourhood again—an escalation of a smaller cut he pushed through in 2022.

This route is how residents get to work, school and hospital appointments elsewhere in Sofia. Cutting it back further won't touch the people responsible for the attack, but it will cut residents off from that access, for something they didn't do.

This isn't a one-off problem, either. In other Roma neighbourhoods, buses already fall short of where they're supposed to go. Cutting this route further would just add to that pattern instead of fixing it.

Protect drivers. Prosecute the people responsible. Don't cut a neighbourhood off from the rest of the city to do it.

📸 Akos Stiller

19/08/2026

Zudija Hopić has spent 15 years recycling electrical and electronic waste in Lacarak, Serbia—work that supports his family of five and earned him a regional award for an environmentally significant recycling solution.

This is what Roma entrepreneurship already looks like. What keeps it from growing isn't ability—it's access to capital and networks.

REDI - Roma Entrepreneurship Development Initiative is working to close the gap—connecting Roma entrepreneurs with the finance, coaching and networks that can turn skill into sustainable businesses.

Follow REDI to learn more.

🎥 Akos Stiller

18/08/2026

"What we do is not only relevant for Roma," says our President Zeljko Jovanovic.

We fight the corruption and vote manipulation that undermine politics. We work to break the clientelism that keeps communities dependent on political patrons doling out favours for loyalty instead of good governance.

We push to reform financing systems that keep capable entrepreneurs out of investment. We help close the labour shortage holding back Europe's economy by getting people into work who are shut out of it now.

And we push for education systems that prepare people for the jobs Europe has.

These are not side projects. Fix them for Roma and the same fixes strengthen Europe's democracy, economy and education for everyone.

17/08/2026

If you're a third-year student, a master's student, a PhD candidate or a researcher working on Roma-related topics — in history, philosophy, anthropology, sociology, biomedical sciences or Romani language and literature — this is your chance to present original research to an interdisciplinary panel of Roma studies scholars, meet researchers from different countries, and see your work considered for publication in Perspective politice, SNSPA's political science journal.

Registration is open for the fifth international scientific session "Gheorghianism and the Foundations of the Roma Nation", held in tribute to Roma sociologist and civic activist Nicolae Gheorghe. It's organised by the Roma Education Fund (REF) with the Faculty of Political Science at SNSPA and the Centre for Roma Studies at the University of Bucharest's Faculty of History, and takes place on 5–6 November 2026 in Bucharest.

Submission deadline: 30 October 2026. Full details and this year's theme below 👇

🎉 | Call for Papers is now open!

We are pleased to announce that registration is now open for the 5th International Scientific Session “Gheorghianism and the Foundations of the Roma Nation”, taking place on 5–6 November 2026 in Bucharest, Romania.

The event is organised by Roma Education Fund and the Faculty of Political Science at SNSPA, in collaboration with the Centre for Roma Studies of the Faculty of History, University of Bucharest.

🎓 The session is open to third-year undergraduate students, master’s students, PhD candidates and researchers interested in presenting their own scientific research related to Roma-related topics, across fields including:

🔬 Social sciences, biomedical sciences and humanities
📚 History
🧠 Philosophy
🌍 Anthropology
👥 Sociology
🗣️ Foreign languages and literatures – Romani specialisation

📅 Submission deadline: 30 October 2026

The event is a tribute to the humanist legacy of Nicolae Gheorghe, the renowned Roma sociologist and civic activist. Over its four previous editions, it has become an important space for academic dialogue and knowledge exchange among researchers, academics and students interested in Roma history, culture and society.

📖 Find out more about this year's theme, submission requirements and previous editions in the full article on our website.

👉 Link in comments ⬇️

We look forward to welcoming you and making this fifth edition another opportunity for meaningful academic exchange! ✌️