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| FRANCE AND THE ROMA 15/09/2010 |
| (2010-09-15) |
| Last updated: 2010-09-16 15:10 EET |
The problem of the Roma who have been repatriated from France to Romania and Bulgaria is again in the spotlight following Tuesday’s arrival of a new group of Romanian and Bulgarian nationals considered undesirable by the French government.
60 people arrived in Romania with a Marseilles-Bucharest flight and another 153 with a flight from Paris. The French government had given every Romanian citizen of Roma origin on these flights 300 euros and another 100 euros per child as repatriation aid. Many of the repatriated Roma say they will go back to France in 3 months’ time, as they are entitled to under European law. In fact, the Romanian Senate on Tuesday passed an amendment to the law about foreign travel for Romanians which allows the repatriated people to leave Romania again. Romanian citizens who are expelled from European Union countries following a court order may be denied the right of movement within the Union, but these provisions do not apply to the people currently repatriated by France.
Attending the Senate debates, the Romanian interior minister, Vasile Blaga, said Romania’s entry into the Schengen area cannot depend on the Roma problem, as suggested by officials in Paris. He cited a report which describes as insignificant the increase in the number of people expelled from France in 2010 as compared to last year. Also, Blaga presented some of the measures taken jointly with the French government to solve the situation of the Roma living in France. Officially, the Roma community in Romania numbers 535,000 people, which accounts for 2.5% of the entire population and makes it the second largest in the country after the ethnic Hungarian community.
On the other hand, the European Commission toughened its stance on France’s attitude, warning the French government that it would take it to court over the controversial Roma expulsions. In a surprisingly tough statement, the European commissioner Viviane Reding warned that France seriously violates the European directive on the free movement of people by applying it discriminatorily. In her opinion, France will almost surely be called before the European Court of Justice for violating European law. In response, the French foreign minister said this was not the time for controversy and gave assurances that the situation of the Roma is at the heart of his country’s concerns, but that, for the time being, repatriations would continue.
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