France and Romania plan to co-operate over Roma

THE EUROPEAN Parliament has condemned French president Nicolas Sarkozy’s deportation of hundreds of gypsies to their Balkan homelands, as France and Romania agreed to work together to improve Roma integration.

France has sent almost 1,000 Roma back to Romania and Bulgaria in recent weeks, as part of what Mr Sarkozy calls a “war on crime”, but which critics denounce as both a cynical bid to boost his popularity and crude discrimination against an ethnic minority.

In a non-binding resolution, MEPs expressed “deep concern at the measures taken by the French authorities and other member states’ authorities targeting Roma and Travellers” and urged them “immediately to suspend all expulsions of Roma”.

The MEPs stressed that “mass expulsions are prohibited” under EU law because “they amount to discrimination on the basis of race and ethnicity”. The parliament also said it “deeply deplores the late and limited response” by the European Commission over the deportations, and criticised “inflammatory and openly discriminatory rhetoric” against Roma.

French immigration minister Eric Besson said Paris would not halt the expulsions, which are taking place alongside a campaign to dismantle Roma camps that officials have described as a breeding ground for crime. “The European Parliament has exceeded its prerogatives, and we are certainly not going to comply with a political diktat,” Mr Besson said.

He was in Bucharest with France’s European affairs minister, Pierre Lellouche, who called on Romania to intensify efforts and increase spending to help gypsies improve their lives at home.

About one million gypsies are believed to live among Romania’s 22 million people. Across central and eastern Europe, they face discrimination and endure appalling standards of education, health and housing. They are also widely blamed for crime.

Romania’s leaders have called on the EU to formulate and fund a strategy to improve the lot of the Roma. “France and Romania will work together with the European Union to support the commission’s commitment to social inclusion of the Roma and to help obtain the necessary financing,” the countries said in a joint statement after yesterday’s meetings.

Romanian foreign minister Teodor Baconschi said they had agreed “a plan of action that will help us solve the problems which are facing us”. “We are prepared to help in this regard,” said Mr Lellouche. “We will plead for this plan in Brussels together.”