Together, we “effectively” keep quiet - European silence encourages anti-Gypsyism

 

 

 

“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[1], 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[2] 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.[3]

 

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.

 

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 2^nd of July Calin Popescu Tariceanu said:” These Roma commit all possible crimes from violent theft, prostitution to robbery and drug trafficking.”