Czech and Hungarian PMs discuss Roma integration in Budapest

Integrating Central Europe’s Roma minority into society needs international cooperation, Czech Prime Minister Jan Fischer agreed with his Hungarian counterpart Gordon Bajnai on Monday. At a meeting in Budapest on Monday evening, however, the two men agreed that fighting anti-Roma racist attacks was mostly the duty of national governments. Speaking after the meeting, Mr Bajnai said that Romany integration was an important theme across the region, which needed to be addressed ‘urgently’. According to the Hungarian MTI Press Agency, the Hungarian prime minister has submitted a proposal to the Visegrad Four group (made up of Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia) calling for a joint strategy to be devised dealing with the issue. At the meeting on Monday, the Czech prime minister praised Hungary for having made a number of arrests in connection with a spate of racially-motivated Roma killings.