Press release
Meeting with Silvia Friedrich, Executive director of European and International Affairs Office in Vienna

At 3rd March 2017. In Vienna, Austria, President of the World Roma Organization Rromanipen and Ambassador for Peace Jovan Damjanovic with Vice President of the World Roma Organization Rromanipen Anom Dalipovski held a meeting with Ms. Silvia Friedrich, Executive Director of the European and International Affairs Office in Vienna.
Ms. Silvia explained to the Roma delegation that Austria established the status of a national minority in the Austrian constitution and thus equated them with all citizens of the Austrian state - that they have the right to form their own institutions, to engage in culture and to engage in every flows of the society, and that the state of Austria will support all that is important for the development and integration of the Roma national minority.

President of the World Roma Organization Rromanipen and Ambassador of Peace Jovan Damjanovic thanked for the reception.
He thanked in particular for the fact that the Roma and Sinti were confirmed the status of a national minority in Austria, which guarantees equal rights to the majority people.
He also thanked the Roma for attaching great importance to the strengthening of culture, and when considering intercultural dialogue, he suggested several events that would be of cultural significance.
Mr Damjanovic reminded Ms. Silvia and the other at the meeting that the Roma in the European area are carriers of culture and stated as the largest Roma culture ambassadors: Elvis Prisli, Charlie Chaplin, Antonio Banderas, Jul Briner, Ava Gardner and many others.

Vice President of the World Roma Federation Presidency Rromanipen and President of the Center for the Implementation of Roma Integration in the Republic of Croatia and the EU Ana Dalipovski also thanked for the reception and stressed that today is very important such a meeting and that this should be a model for practice in other EU countries, and how to discuss the problems of Roma and offer some solutions in terms of integration that guarantees equality and empowerment of the Roma national community.

Belgrade , 6th March , 2017

Sekretariat for infomrming