On the occasion of the International Roma Day - April 8, the Netherlands Ambassador H.E. Simone Filippini attended the debate on "Challenge and Integration of Roma Community", organized by the Roma MPs Saban Sailu and Nezdet Mustafa, which was held in the Parliament.

The Roma Day was marked for the first time in 2007 as state holiday in the Republic of Macedonia for members of the Roma ethnic community. April 8 was declared International Roma Day at the first world Roma congress in London on April 4-8, 1971. The Roma flag was adopted, along with song "Gelem, Gelem" as the Roma anthem, whereas all Roma language dialects as equal.

The Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Macedonia is supporting the integration of Roma population in the community through  an educational project for Roma children. The project Equal Educational Opportunities for Roma Children started in July 2006 and it is implemented by FOSIM. It includes 1580 Roma children from 10 primary schools in Macedonia and the aim is to improve the performance of Roma students  , in particular girls,  in class-based grades (I-IV) and to increase retention rate of target Roma students in subject-based grades (V-VIII) in primary schools.

According to the last census in Macedonia, there are 53,879 Roma in the country, i.e. 2.66 percent of the population. Roma in Macedonia are recognized as a people in the Constitution, they have political parties, media in Roma language, whereas Suto Orizari is a unique example in Europe, where Roma represent a majority in the municipality.

This year is the fourth within the Roma Decade (2005-2015), which is an international initiative aimed at improvement of Roma's social and economic state. Besides Macedonia, the initiative is supported by Bulgaria, Croatia, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia and Hungary.