SLOVAKIA-EU-POLITICS-MINORITY-ROMA

TO GO WITH AFP STORY BY TATIANA BEDNARIKOVA-Michal Barsony, (C), an ethnic-Roma mayor of Kunova Teplica, smiles as he visits the Roma part of Kunova Teplica on March 2, 2011. Slovak Roma are pinning their hopes on a record number of Roma mayors to change their status as members of the European Union’s most neglected and impoverished minority. Slovakia’s political map saw a shift in November municipal elections when 29 Roma mayors and hundreds of municipal councillors were elected mostly in eastern Slovakia, up from 19 mayors of Roma origin across Slovakia in 2006 and 11 in 2002. AFP PHOTO/JOE KLAMAR