Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-05-20-Speech-2-335"
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"en.20080520.28.2-335"2
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".
Thank you, Madam President. Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, the situation of Roma people in Italy – as in the whole of Europe – is terrible, and has been so for many decades. We have done extremely little, and the governments we guide or support, even governments belonging to our own political groups, are doing very little to put a stop to it.
Neither left-wing nor right-wing governments have managed to bring about any change over recent decades as regards acceptance of the Roma, and this is why I believe it is extremely important to give this issue a regular place on the agenda and in debate in this House. We would like to ask for an even deeper commitment on the part of the political groups, however, and I believe that programmes are needed, genuine, properly implemented integration of the Roma is needed in Europe, if Roma people are not to fall victim to atrocities as a result of this sort of mass hysteria.
I do not think it is enough to make speeches in plenary sessions, and it is completely useless to treat this issue as a party political matter, because neither socialist, nor liberal, nor conservative governments have been able to do anything. The ongoing lack of action in Europe at the moment with regard to the Roma issue is something we oppose, just as we oppose any reference to – or practice of – the principle of collective guilt, and just as we oppose crime.
I believe it is very important that the Italian government should do everything it can to fulfil its promise and ensure that the planned security package is not directed at any individual ethnic group, and that mass deportations are avoided. Even more important in my view, however, is the message that we can send to countries from here, from Europe, and the responsibility that the European Commission needs to assume in order to ensure that minimum requirements are put in place, that an agreement is reached among the Member States regarding how they plan to go about changing the situation of Roma people in Europe in the immediate term.
I think it is indispensable for Europe’s standing in both moral and competitive terms to stop the empty talk and place the emphasis instead on action, on putting serious plans into effect. This should be the key focus. I also think that it is our task to promote and to demand this. Thank you."@en1
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