Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-07-07-Speech-1-123"
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"en.20080707.18.1-123"2
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"−
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, Minister Maroni has described this debate as grotesque but the reality is that today he has stopped swaggering like a cowboy and is trying to convince his European colleagues that it is all the fault of the press and the left, and that his sole aim is to do the right thing for the poor gypsies, shut in terrible camps and that with ethnic profiling it will be possible to make all Roma children go to school and that it is not necessary – nor does he wish – to criminalise all travellers. So this debate is grotesque.
However, I do not agree. I believe that this debate, and the attention that we have managed to attract, along with so many NGOs, and so many fellow Members of different nationalities – because this is not just an Italian issue – and so many people who are simply concerned about the situation of rights, is important, and is important precisely because we are holding it here, in Europe, and because we are talking about an issue of rights and of citizens and hence today this is also meant to be a small contribution to what is seen today as a crisis of meaning in Europe.
Europe has purpose: it has the purpose of checking cowboy attitudes and policies that are cruel and above all ineffective; it has the purpose of combating racism and discrimination, using the law and existing agreements born out of a bloody history. This debate has the purpose of confirming that there is no room for ethnic profiling in Europe: so much so that the Government seems to be doing an about-turn on this issue and we welcome that if it is the case. The debate also has the purpose of publicly and legitimately calling into question the need, in an advanced country of 58 million inhabitants, where the mafia controls EUR 120 billion and a huge turnover and whole areas of the territory, where refuse is killing off one of the richest provinces in the history of Europe, to declare a state of emergency appropriate to a tsunami or an earthquake for 12 months on account of the presence of 160 000 ‘travellers’, half of whom are Italian citizens.
We believe that this debate is important because with the threat of ethnic profiling and the constant criminalisation of the Roma and Sinti we shall no longer be safe. The efforts of those who work with the Roma and Sinti communities, to bring them out of a marginalised situation, one of poverty and violence to women and children – which is objective, which exists, which neither I nor any of us wish to deny – is at an impasse, and there is simply no way out if the situation remains as it is today.
Today we are discussing these issues, Mr President, for the third time in a few months. I hope that positive, amicable and constructive pressure, also represented in this debate, will convince those of my compatriots, and other European citizens, that trying to throw everybody out and using a violent, simplistic and racist approach to solve what is really a problem of exclusion, as well as an economic problem and also a problem with the culture of our country and our continent, that they will be convinced that that is not the right path.
I therefore invite you, Commissioner, to give a high profile to the Commission’s work, the work we are doing in Parliament, and also to the money that is being given for positive policies of this type, which today are little known, as they are hidden and swept aside by prejudice that is ingrained not only in Italy but also in Europe."@en1
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