Slovakia appoints Alexander Daško as Plenipotentiary for Romani Communities
The Slovak Government, meeting on Monday, 13 November under the leadership of Prime Minister Robert Fico, appointed a new Slovak Government Plenipotentiary for Romani Communities. Alexander Daško, chair of the Lavuta civic association and principal of an arts school at the primary level, is now in the post.
Daško has previously also served as an art manager, a community worker and a teacher. On Tuesday he attended meetings on the development of localities inhabited by Romani people and their employment.
According to a statement posted to Facebook, the new Plenipotentiary considers his main priority to be creating room for the education and employment of the Romani community. “During the first few years he will focus on gradually improving access to housing, the availability of potable water, and order in the Romani localities. His main task in this process is to effectively take advantage of EU funds and intensively collaborate with representatives of municipalities and state bodies,” the Office of the Plenipotentiary said.
Daško also considers cultivating coexistence between the majority population and the Romani community to be an essential subject. In his view, there have already been enough analyses and concepts produced about the living conditions in such communities, about which everything is already known, and now what is needed is to get to work on resolving the issues there.
“The new Plenipotentiary and his team will be focusing on specific aims and results,” the Office of the Plenipotentiary said. Daško has now replaced Ján Hero in the post, who was removed during the first cabinet session of recently re-elected Slovak Prime Minister Fico.
The Office of the Slovak Government Plenipotentiary for Romani Communities has more than 120 employees and supervises almost EUR 400 million in EU funds.
