President of the Council of the Roma national minority from Zagreb Nedjatin Kamberovski welcomed all gathered at a ceremony at the Old City Hall and pointed out the fact that Roma rights in Croatia have been improved with the Constitutional Law on National Minorities, the Action Plan and the National Strategy for Roma Inclusion 2020.

Chairman of the Coordinating Committee of National Minorities of Zagreb Zoltan Balaz-Piri pointed out that only joint efforts of the entire Roma community, with the support of the City of Zagreb, will produce results for full integration of Roma into society and improve their living and working conditions.

Envoy of the President of the Croatia Danica Juricic-Spasovic quoted words of President Josipovic that Roma are still victims of unfair stigmatization in society and it is necessary to do more for them, particularly provide education for young Roma.

President of the City Assembly Darinko Kosor expressed hope that the Roma in the city council will again have their representative, like Nura Ismailovski was in her last mandate.

Zagreb Mayor Milan Bandic said that he is proud of Roma citizens living in Zagreb and thus making it a multicultural city.

A parallel ceremony was held at the Mimara Museum organized by the Roma National Council, where, along with numerous guests from the Croatian political life and numerous diplomatic representatives, attended a large number of Roma.

The audience was addressed by: Veljko Kajtazi, president of the Roma National Council and Member of Parliament, representative of 12 national minorities in Croatia. He concluded that the situation of Roma in Croatia is continuously improving over the years, and that great progress will be made by teaching the Roma language at the Faculty of Philosophy in Zagreb, in accordance with the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages that was signed. As major problems that Roma face, he pointed out low standard of living and health, poor educational structure and illegally built houses in which they live. He also emphasized the suffering of Roma in the World War II in concentration camp at Jasenovac, where about 1,000 Roma lost their lives and were buried in a nearby cemetery, which has been preserve in their honor.

Prof.dr.Boras Damir, Dean of Faculty of Philosophy in Zagreb and a member of the Roma National Council announced the establishment of a Romology study in the academic year 2015/16.

Aleksandar Tolnauer, president of Croatian Council for National Minorities reminded all the present that Roma have been living on Croatian territory since 13th century, which classifies them as a native minority. Due to their way of living, they were excluded and discriminated during the past. Today's problems of Roma are high unemployment, poverty and segregation. However, he stressed that Croatia precedes in the legal protection of national minorities and that Croatia is the only European Union country which recognized the Roma as a national minority.

Dragica Zgrebec, Deputy Speaker of Parliament, reminded that Kajtazi wrote the first dictionary in Romani language, which signified the beginning in history for Roma community not only in verbal form, but also in writing.

Vesna Pusic, First Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs is this year's winner of the Festive plaque for her contribution in improving the status of Roma and human rights over the past year.