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Together,
we “effectively” keep quiet - European silence encourages anti-Gypsyism
Just
before ending this article the Romanian Prime Minister managed to close
the circle of racist anti-Roma declarations coming from the political
elite in
Romania
. On 2nd of July Calin Popescu Tariceanu said:” These
Roma commit all possible crimes from violent theft, prostitution to
robbery and drug trafficking.”
“The Roma should consider themselves fortunate to be breathing the
same air as us, the majority population” – Romanian school
inspector, June 2007
During
this year in
Romania
, we have witnessed an increase in public displays of anti-Gypsyism. The
Romanian President was sanctioned for racism after he called a
journalist an “aggressive stinky Gypsy woman.” The current Minister
of Foreign Affairs published an article strongly condemned by Roma
organisations in
Romania
, in which he used a strong pejorative term referring to Roma women and
implied that Roma in a particular neighborhood in
Bucharest
are criminals and stink. The Romanian Minister for European Integration
had a slip of tongue in
Brussels
. indirectly saying that contrary to Roma, the Romanians are hard
working and honest people.
The
European Union reacted with nothing but an eerie silence.
This
silence and non-action seems to be an important part of the social
inclusion strategy of the European Commission (EC) when it comes to Roma
and a few other ethnic and religious minorities. The EC, under a
(center) right-wing leadership, almost completely scrapped the already
weak social pillar of the Lisbon Strategy. The social part of the
European Union’s “governing programme” has become famous mainly
for its newly-invented and well-promoted terminology which almost no one
understands,
like “flexicurity” and “mainstreaming.”
The
national governments used both terms to justify doing almost nothing in
regard with acute social problems. The Commission reacted and decided to
add to the existing concepts a better and much recognizable one as now
we have” effective” mainstreaming and flexicurity.
The
“UNITED in Diversity” slogan of the European Union was replaced by a
much more ambiguous, but probably more “effective mainstream” one,
TOGETHER. I doubt the replacement was linked to the ignored racism and
social exclusion when it comes to Roma but fits the reduced interest
in any other diversity but that one focused on economy and white,
Christian Europeans of the EU institutions and National Governments.
Anyway, the extensive coverage of the riots in
France
in 2005 as well as the widespread racism in
Europe
rendered, indeed, the slogan quite useless.
What
follows tries to prove that in the case of the rights and social
inclusion of European Roma,
Europe
has been UNITED in ignoring us and it is, indeed, TOGETHER in keeping
quiet about anti-Gypsyism.
The
riots in February 2004 in
Slovakia
involving the Roma population in Eastern Slovakia resulted in the
largest deployment of army troops since the Second World War and had
many commonalities with the riots in the autumn of 2005 in
France
.
Slovakia
joined the EU less than three months after, the European Commission
being clear and loud in its absolute lack of comment about what
happened.
In
the past
Slovakia
was well known for strong anti-Roma declaration of some of its most
important politicians, declarations which were ignored by the officials
in
Brussels
despite blatantly violating the
Copenhagen
criteria supposedly compulsory for the accession. Former prime minister,
Vladimir Meciar considered Roma to be “antisocial, mentally backward,
inassimilable and socially unacceptable” and Jan Slota nowadays part
of the governmental coalition in
Slovakia
didn’t hesitate to offer Roma 627 USD to undergo sterilization after
before often attacked Roma.
The
non-reaction to Roma related issues of the European Commission is
considered by Roma activist to be a reason why just 5 month after
joining the European Union, Justice Minister Daniel Lipšic backed by a
cabinet majority challenged the Anti-Discrimination Act in October 2004.
The
Constitutional Court
agreed with the Minister Lipšic and scrapped the law. The Act provided
a legal basis for temporary measures to help the most disadvantaged
groups in society and targeted the 700.000 or so Slovak Roma
acknowledged to be the most discriminated and poor ethnic group.
On
19 January 2005, the European Commission organised the conference,
“Human Rights and EU Migration Policy,” in
Brussels
. During his speech, the newly appointed Slovak Ambassador to the EU,
Mr. Maros Sefcovic, expressed his view that his Roma compatriots were
“exploiters of the Slovak welfare system”. A similar declaration
targeting any other ethnic group in
Europe
would have started a diplomatic row and most likely would have ended the
conference focused on human rights with a general walk out. In this
case, both during and after the conference in
Brussels
, no reaction took place.
On
August 28, 2005, when the extremist Slovak nationalist party, the Slovak
Pospolitost, organized a one-hundred-man march in the honor of Josef
Tiso, the first fascist president of the
Nazi
Slovak
Republic
, created in 1939 by Adolf Hitler. In his opening speech, Marian
Kotebla, leader of Pospolitost,
urged Slovaks to stop paying taxes used for “gypsy parasites that keep
breeding on like hungry and desperate pythons.” Asked
to comment on the racist statements against Roma, the spokesperson for
the President of the
Slovak
Republic
, Ivan Gasparovic, said: “everyone is free to celebrate the defeat of
fascism by the allied forces in the manner they want.” No reaction was
reported from Prime Minister Miklulas Dzurinda or from members of his
cabinet.
The
Commission and EU member states kept also “effectively” quiet once
more. Unfortunately,
Slovakia
is not the only country were anti-Gypsyism is ignored.
On
February 27, 2004, Radio Prague
broadcast a program focused on measures needed in “stopping the exodus
of Roma” into the
Czech Republic
. The Minister of the Interior, Stanislav Gross (to become the first
Czech prime minister fired for corruption), was interviewed and affirmed
his strong stand against Roma migrants from
Slovakia
. The minister focused on the “violent riots and looting” of Eastern
Slovakian Roma during social unrest in
Slovakia
and restrictive measures against a “possible Roma invasion.” Despite
these allegations against Slovak citizens, the Slovak government did not
react, nor did anyone else.
Ironically,
in 2002, British tabloids reacted hysterically to what they termed a
Czech Roma “invasion” of hundreds of thousands. The official census
in the
Czech
Republic
in 2001 indicated a total of 11,716 Roma, while the most generous social
estimate suggested there may be around 90,000 Roma in the
Czech Republic
. British Prime Minister Tony Blair wrote a letter to his then Czech
counterpart Vladimir Spidla (currently serving as Commissioner in charge
of Roma issues) concerning the “problem.” The letter, which cannot
be described as diplomatic in any way, provides surprising examples of
anti-Gypsyism within the
UK
leadership.
Mr
Blair wrote in the letter:
There
are no grounds for Czech citizens to seek protection abroad. We need to
take action. At our end, we are introducing legislation that will give
us further powers to combat asylum abuse. This includes to remove
claimants before their appeals are heard, when their claims are
manifestly unfounded.
However,
during the same year, an EU accession report highlighted cases of police
abuse and racially motivated violence against Roma, segregation of
Romani children in schools, and discrimination against Roma with regards
to access to employment and social services in the
Czech Republic
. The
European
Roma
Rights
Center
also reported forced sterilization of Romani women in the
Czech
Republic
.
The
letter employs what is often referred to as “coded” racism, in this
case, the assertion that Roma claims for asylum are unfounded: “In
addition the Roma community needs to know that unfounded asylum seekers
will be returned immediately. We will of course be happy to work with
you to ensure that this message is communicated rapidly and clearly.”
No
diplomatic reactions occurred at the European and international level to
protest the racist border policy set up by the
UK
government in 2001 which identified Roma as a target group for
“special” border control.
Meanwhile
in
Romania
, the mayor of
Craiova
one of the biggest in
Romania
, declared for the national press in 2005 that “I pee on this mother
f….. stinky Gypsies”. Twice fined for racism the mayor of
Craiova
received the highest Romanian Orthodox Church distinction. The Church is
the most trusted and respected institution in
Romania
.
Before
the “expiration” of the United in Diversity slogan, it seemed that
anti-Gypsyism was, in fact, a more realistic EU characteristic than
tolerance or diversity. Polls all over Europe proved that Roma are by
far the most hated ethnic minority in Europe, including in
Luxembourg
and
Malta
, countries where, according to their own national data, no Roma live.
The
European Commission, the governing body of the EU, itself, is far from
being diverse – no Roma work for the Commission and the number of
people of African, Indian, Pakistani and
Caribbean
origins and especially of people of Muslim faith is very far from
reflecting the European diversity.
The
Commission puts much effort into justifying the existing status quo and
it is quick to point towards national governments when it is necessary
to allot blame for the abysmal situation of Roma. This is not a reaction
but just an easy way to avoid responsibility that unfortunately became
the main Roma strategy of the EC. If just a fraction of that effort was
put into developing real policies, such as those developed for
“effective white mainstream” gender and disability, then probably
the Unity in Diversity slogan could expire for good reason. And
possibly Roma would finally be accepted in being together and equally
full citizens of the European Union.
P.S
I write this as an enthusiasts pro-European who strongly believe that
the European Civil society needs to monitor, assess and criticize the
decision or in the case of Roma the lack of decision coming from the EU
institutions.
Page Under Construction
See
ppt presentations of ERGO
EU
Institutions
Presentation
for MGS-ROM Romania May 2006
To
access the European Commission website for Roma please follow the link:
European
Commission Roma Website To
access the Council of Europe Roma and Travelers Division website follow
the link: Council
of Europe To
access the OSCE website on Roma and Sinti follow the link: OSCE/ODIHR DOSTA/ENOUGH
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