On June 13th, 2013, the study “Effects of IPA Funds on Roma Community" was presented in Skopje within the frames of the initiative “Making the Most of EU Funds for Roma”.

Aleksandar Krzalovski, the First executive director of MCMS and an author of the survey, presented the main findings and conclusions. According to the survey, two projects have been approved (to foreign organizations/companies for providing services) with total amount of 628,623 € that makes only 1.5 % of the component IPA 1 2008 (and 26% of sub-component for Democracy and basic rights for that year) or only 0.4 % of total IPA assets agreed by the end of 2011.

Making the Most of EU Funds for Roma invites Roma NGOs to submit project proposals for organizational development closely related to EU accession processes. The initiative addresses the difficulties of all stakeholders in connecting the objectives of the Decade of Roma Inclusion to European Union funding opportunities by complementing EU and national policy instruments available in the Decade countries. The small grants scheme provides particular learning prospects for the development needs of Roma organizations aiming to advance their participation at all stages of EU integration processes.

You will find the announcement at:
http://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/grants/small-grants-scheme-organizational-development-eu-accession-issues

 Application Deadline:
8 June 2013

On 18th of April 2013 in Osijek, Croatia, the PGF (Project Generation Facility) Regional partner meeting was held, with the purpose of defining a new MtM (Making the Most of EU Funds for Roma) mid-term strategic thinking.

Sixteen participants from the Roma organizations (Bairska svetlina, Bitola, Mesecina, Gostivar, Ternipe, Delcevo, Sumnal and Ambrela, Skopje and Association for multicultural society and human rights, Stip) on 13 and 14 February 2013 attended the Workshop for preparing project proposals, which will be submitted to the Government of Republic of Macedonia (Unit for cooperation of the Government with NGOs).

On 02 and 03 July 2012 in Veles a regional meeting had been held for defining the strategic directions of the initiative “making the most of EU funds for Roma (MtM)”. The meeting was attended by 20 participants, representatives from the national implementation organizations from Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Croatia, as well as representatives from relevant institutions from this four countries, Open Society Institute (OSI) and the Secretariat of the Roma Decade.