Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-02-14-Speech-3-441"
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"en.20070214.27.3-441"2
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".
Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia recently gave us some worrying data that show that acts of racism and xenophobia against minorities are on the increase in Europe. The Roma, who form the largest ethnic minority in the European Union, are particularly targeted.
A great deal of discrimination occurs in relation to work and the right to education, and the Roma often live in conditions of poverty, marginalised from society. Sometimes discrimination comes from the very institutions that ought to safeguard people’s rights. In a recent case in Slovenia, an entire group that had been living in that country for many years was removed from the area where it had been living for so long. I believe that we need to encourage the Roma to take part in social and political life, but for that to happen the Member States must first recognise them as an ethnic and linguistic minority. It would be necessary to get rid of the campsite system in favour of types of housing that would facilitate integration, thus eliminating any form of segregation.
The Roma have inherited a centuries-old culture, and I believe that we should have great respect for nomadic cultures. We owe to them the birth of what we call Western civilisation, which arose in Mesopotamia, now Iraq and under military occupation, inappropriately stirring up a war of civilisations. We are in debt to the Roma, even though, in my view, civilised Europe has often mistreated and discriminated against them.
We must therefore support their social inclusion and freedom of movement. That is why I join my other fellow Members in calling on the Commission to take a more proactive stance – although I realise that Mr Almunia will probably not be able to give us any exhaustive answers since this is not his area of expertise – but we believe that the Commission ought to be moving faster on these issues."@en1
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