How EBRD support enabled Belgrade, Serbia to become role model for social inclusion of Roma community
A recycling centre that earned Serbia’s capital Belgrade a top award from the Council of Europe for promoting social inclusion of Roma people was brought into the limelight by the visit of a high-profile international delegation.
The group, headed by the UN’s Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon and including the EBRD’s Acting Director for Serbia, Ian Brown, visited the centre that transformed Belgrade into a distinguished role model for addressing the challenges that face the Roma community.
The EBRD has played a key role in placing the issue of Roma people high up on the city’s agenda, when it agreed to finance the roads surrounding Belgrade’s Gazela Bridge, alongside the European Investment Bank, which financed the reconstruction of the crumbling bridge. The project included an important social component aimed at resettling and restoring the livelihoods of 175 Roma families that used to live under the bridge.