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| THE RROMA ISSUE, UNDER SCRUTINY BY THE EUROEPAN UNION 02/07/2008 |
| (2008-07-02) |
| Last updated: 2008-07-03 14:50 EET |
A Eurobarometer on discrimination in the European Union released on Tuesday reveals that the Roma minority is the group with the most limited rights across the Union. According to the document, Italian and Czech citizens are the most uncomfortable with the presence of the Roma: 47 per cent of them say they would feel very uncomfortable having a Roma neighbour. Things are different in France, where only 15 per cent of the respondents feel uncomfortable in the presence of Roma.
According to the survey, one-quarter of the overall EU population would not have any contact with the Roma. With a 20 per cent rate, Romania is somewhere in the middle of the chart, below the European average tolerance rate for this ethnic group. Survey results indicate that only 14 per cent of the Italians feel comfortable with the Romas, as against the 36 per cent European average.
The Eurobarometer results were made public one day before the European Commission announced measures to protect this community, as the European Parliament had requested more than once. Meanwhile in Brussels, an increasing number of voices state, off the record for the time being, that the Italian Interior Minister Roberto Maroni's intentions to fingerprint all Roma in the camps around Italy do not come against European norms. He has recently announced plans to send police to Roma camps to conduct a “census.”
Maroni also proposed the fingerprinting of Roma children, which sparked the opposition of some of the Romanian media and public. In a first stage, the Romanian Foreign Ministry stated it was “closely” watching such measures taken by the Italian government, and would not hesitate to stand up against any breaching of relevant European legislation. But Romania's honorary consul in north-eastern Italy, Treviso, businessman Mario Moretti Polegato, has slightly different views on the matter. He says the fingerprinting of Roma children is aimed at disbanding beggar networks. Still, observers believe that the use of ethnic criteria in selecting the people to be fingerprinted is questionable. Last week, a EU spokesperson emphasised that fingerprinting on ethnic criteria, particularly as regards minors, was unacceptable. Minister Maroni countered that European Commission members were misinformed. He argued that Italian authorities were only trying to put together records on children. Fingerprinting is used in all juvenile courts, the Italian official added, and urged the Commission to “look further into the matter.”
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