"The Decade For The Integration Of The Roma" is a political obligation adopted by eights countries of central and southeast Europe and supported by the international community. This is the first concerted action aimed at changing the life of the Roma.
Sanader and other European prime ministers signed the Declaration in Sofia on 2 February 2005.
Stressing that the Roma are the largest national minority in Europe, PM Sanader said that the action was launched so as to ensure that the law which guarantee the Roma their rights be implemented.
"By adopting the action plan, the government expressed its commitment to the implementation of human and minority rights of all Croatian citizens," Sanader said and added this was also a path to the European Union and a joint European future.
The Croatian PM thanked all who worked on the drawing up of the action plan, notably the Roma, international and Croatian organisations and associations and the Government's Office for National Minorities which is the coordinator of the action plan.
The head of the government's commission for the Roma, Jadranka Kosor. said that in the document, Croatia was focused on four areas -- education, housing, health care and employment. She stressed that 60 million kuna (approx. eight million euros) had been allocated for the plan and added that the government still expected donations.