EU calls on fresh start for continent's Roma
(STRASBOURG) - Justice commissioner Viviane Reding called Tuesday on European Union states to ensure a fresh start for Roma gypsies with policies aimed at full social and economic integration.
Reding, who famously clashed last year with French President Nicolas Sarkozy over deportations by Paris of Europe's largest minority, said that row had acted as the "wake-up" call for the EU executive.
"The situation in France in summer last year was a very necessary wake-up call because it was at that moment that everywhere in Europe people were reminded that there are rights for citizens of Europe and that those rights have to be implemented," she told a press conference at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, eastern France.
Reding last September compared France's expulsion of Roma gypsies back to eastern European states to the WWII Vichy-era persecution of Jews and gypsies, sparking fury in Paris.
Eventually, the commission dropped a threat to prosecute France for discrimination when Paris gave assurances that it would fall in line with EU-wide laws on freedom of movement.
In proposing a new EU framework for 27 national Roma integration strategies, Reding gave states until the end of the year to spell out how they intend to ensure Roma are given improved access to "schools, jobs, healthcare and housing."
Currently, only 42 percent of Roma children are enrolled in EU education, against a European average of 97.5 percent, the commission said citing data from Bulgaria, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania and Slovakia.
Reding wants all Roma children to "complete at least primary school," which often ends at around 11 years of age, although she recognised that fresh impetus would also have to come from Roma communities.
EU employment and social affairs commissioner Laszlo Andor, who joined Reding at the press conference, said exclusion had to be confronted in a democratic system based on human rights.
"There can be no tolerance for racism," he said, urging a "campaign against xenophobia" in reference to "explicit" tendencies seen in Hungary, where reports and images of vigilante-like mobs rounding on Roma camps had become "a major concern."
EU framework for national Roma strategies - guide