Mayors from SE want changes to five laws to address Roma issues
Brežice, 4 April - Mayors from eleven municipalities with Roma communities in the southeast of the country have decided to start collecting 5,000 voter signatures to file to parliament changes to five laws they have drafted to improve the conditions in which Roma children are growing up and enhance the safety of local residents.
Brežice
Eleven mayors from the southeast decide to collect 5,000 voter signatures to file to parliament changes to five laws to improve the situation in which Roma communities live and enhance the safety of locals.
Photo: Aleš Kocjan/STA
Brežice
Eleven mayors from the southeast decide to collect 5,000 voter signatures to file to parliament changes to five laws to improve the situation in which Roma communities live and enhance the safety of locals.
Photo: Aleš Kocjan/STA
Brežice
Eleven mayors from the southeast decide to collect 5,000 voter signatures to file to parliament changes to five laws to improve the situation in which Roma communities live and enhance the safety of locals.
Photo: Aleš Kocjan/STA
Brežice
Eleven mayors from the southeast decide to collect 5,000 voter signatures to file to parliament changes to five laws to improve the situation in which Roma communities live and enhance the safety of locals. Novo Mesto Mayor Gregor Macedonia in the centre.
Photo: Aleš Kocjan/STA
The mayors sent the changes to parliament last autumn hoping one of the deputy groups would formally file them into parliamentary procedure.
Since this did not happen, they decided at their meeting in Brežice on Tuesday to do it on their own, but have to first collect the required signatures.
The mayors of Novo Mesto, Brežice, Škocjan, Semič, Metlika, Črnomelj, Ribnica, Trebnje, Šentjernej, Kočevje and Krško see legislative changes as the only way to address what they see as a deteriorating situation.
Brežice Mayor Ivan Molan for instance said that there is an increasing number of incidents upsetting public order involving Roma individuals, including minors.
"We all agreed this is a systemic issue, and we're powerless so we'd like to improve the situation by changing the legislation," he told the press after the meeting.
The changes to the Parental Protection and Family Benefits Act would cut by a third a child allowance if parents do not enrol their child to school after the age of 15, that is to secondary school.
Under the changes to the Social Assistance Payments Act, parents would receive the social benefit not in cash but in kind if their child does not come to primary school while the parents have unpaid bills to public institutions.
Those registered as unemployed would be encouraged to find a job and public works for vulnerable groups would be extended from two to fours years under the changes to the Labour Market Regulation Act.
Sanctions for shooting with firearms would become more severe with the changes to the Protection of Public Order Act.
And to get a driving licence, a candidate would have to have attended primary school for a whole nine years while they would have to have finished at least seventh grade under the proposed changes to the Drivers Act.
"Today's legal framework deprives many children and youth who are growing up in difficult social environments of their future," said Novo Mesto Mayor Gregor Macedoni.
Many do not go to primary school or finish it, and can thus not enjoy the right to be included into society as equals. "With this proposal we'd like to help them," he said.
When the mayors ask the parliament to allow them to collect the signatures, the president of the National Assembly will set a 60-day deadline to do so.