The Government on July 17 is to approve the draft regulations concerning the work of community mediators. This post was instituted by a law adopted by Parliament several months ago to facilitate the Romani people’s access to social assistance services, education, healthcare, employment and documentation. The community mediators will work in settlement were there are at least 150 Romanies, IPN reports.

Among the community mediator’s tasks are to identify the beneficiaries and their needs, to inform the beneficiaries about the opportunities that appeared on the labor market, to coordinate the steps with the local public authorities so as to facilitate their access to employment and other services.

The mediators will be selected at a contest by a commission created by order of the settlement’s mayor, while the candidates will be fielded by Romani people. The recommendations of civil society organizations working in settlements will be taken into account.

The candidate must have at least general secondary education, have experience of working for projects or initiatives implemented in settlements that are compactly populated by Romanies or have mixed population of at least one year, know the official language. The community mediator will not have the right to become involved in possible conflicts in the settlement or to give priority to particular persons to the detriment of other persons.