(BRUSSELS) - Rights campaigners expressed concern Tuesday about the European Commission's stance on Italy's controversial Roma gypsy policy and urged Brussels to release an Italian report on the matter.

"The commission appears to have taken the narrowest possible view, accepting a 'softened' version of the measures initially implemented by the Italian government," said the groups, led by Amnesty International.

"These same measures had been severely criticised as discriminatory and violating human rights law by the Council of Europe, civil society and indeed the commission itself," a statement said.

On September 4, the commission ruled that Italy had not sought to collect data about people's ethnic origin or religion with its scheme to fingerprint gypsies without identity papers, based on an Italian report on its plans.

A justice affairs spokesman said the report showed that nothing in the plan and the way it was carried out "authorises the collection of data relating to ethnic origin or the religion of people."

EU Justice Commissioner Jacques Barrot demanded the report after Italian Interior Minister Roberto Maroni said that Roma and their children would be fingerprinted "to prevent phenomena such as begging."

The 10 rights groups, including many representing Roma interests, called on the commission to "fully disclose the report and explanation on which the assessment is based".

They also urged Brussels to "clarify if the response to Maroni's report implies a 'green light' to the action and measures being implemented, namely forced evictions, attacks on Roma camps and derogatory or racist declarations by officials."

The call comes just ahead of an EU-Roma summit on September 16.

Maroni, a member of the right-wing Northern League party in Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right coalition, has said the fingerprinting of gypsies would be concluded before the middle of October.

His plan has angered rights and religious groups, who expressed concern that troubling ethnic and religious details are being gathered from the gypsies, usually from their camps around major cities.

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