Schooling, jobs key to Roma integration: Andor

(BUDAPEST) - Education and jobs are the two main measures that must be tackled when looking at Roma integration strategies, European representatives said Thursday at a Roma forum here.

"I agree with those who say that the key tasks are education and employment," Hungary's EU commissioner for social affairs and inclusion Laszlo Andor said.

"These people live in poverty and their children do not go to school... We are not preparing them for life and it is a scandal," added Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding.

The European Commission presented on Tuesday a plan to tackle the Roma issue, which focuses on improving education, housing, work and health among the 12-million European Roma community, and which current EU chair Hungary is hoping to seal in the European Council on June 24.

Andor expected the results of the programme to be "visible in four-five years".

Also speaking at the event, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban announced his government was to launch a programme to provide state-financed work to 100,000 Roma and to help 10,000 Roma youth acquire technical skills.

"If all goes well, next week we are going to sign this agreement which we might call historic," Orban boasted.

Unemployment among Roma -- who make up seven percent of Hungary's population of ten million -- can reach 90 percent in the poorest parts of the country.