SLOVENIA, November 11 - The working group led by State Secretary in the Office of the Prime Minister, Dr Anton Grizold, is composed of the representatives of the Government, ministries, local communities, and the Council of the Roma Community of the Republic of Slovenia.

As stated by Dr Grizold after the session, the members learned about the activities already implemented in this field, determined the starting points and the group’s mode of action, "The fundamental task of the working group is a comprehensive discussion of the Roma issues in all fields in order to ensure that the Roma population in the Republic of Slovenia obtains decent living conditions and is actively included in social life.

The group members will strive for the state’s comprehensive approach when resolving complex Roma issues in Slovenia, i.e. by guiding and integrating competent ministries, municipalities, narrow local and Roma communities. They will form proposals for comprehensive systemic solutions that will provide decent living and working conditions for the Roma population in Slovenia. The guideline of the working group will be tolerance, dialogue and raising of awareness about co-existence in local communities and in the broader Slovenian society. In doing so, suitable strategic communication with the Roma population, local residents, representatives of municipal structures and the wider public is vital."

At the session, it was also agreed that the work will be divided between sub-groups and their leaders will be Tina Heferle, State Secretary at the Ministry of the Interior, and mag. Stanko Baluh, Director of the Government Office for National Minorities.