Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2011-11-16-Speech-3-452-000"
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"en.20111116.24.3-452-000"2
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"Mr President, a few hours ago, an important prize was awarded here in this Chamber. It was said that freedom, justice and solidarity are pillars of the European Union.
However, I would like to ask you: how can that be reconciled with the fact that racist violence against the Roma is to a certain degree the order of the day in very many Member States and is a constant state of affairs in Bulgaria, Romania, the Czech Republic, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Slovakia and the Balkans? It is also the case that Roma, who are EU citizens, are being expelled not only from France, but also from Denmark, Italy, Germany and Finland. However, freedom, solidarity and justice, of which we speak so often here, should apply universally or not at all. It is scandalous – I cannot put it any better – if, despite an EU framework strategy, despite numerous promises by the Member States, the largest minority in Europe continues to be discriminated against.
In the Czech Republic, I spoke with Roma families that were utterly shocked and, above all, frightened because anti-Roma demonstrations had been taking place for months right outside their front door – and with banners containing the words: ‘gas the Roma’! That is shocking, not just as a neighbour of these Roma, but it also not worthy of our history when we simply tolerate such a thing or attempt to change it with the use a few more police officers.
In the Czech Republic, as in many other countries, Roma children still attend separate schools – and in the Czech Republic, for example, they go to schools with disabled children. As a left-leaning politician, I say to you that the Roma do not belong in separate schools, and neither do disabled children. That violates human rights and I believe that that needs to be said in this regard. The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that separate schools for Roma are illegal. Despite this, these schools merrily continue.
As we all know, the European Roma Rights Centre has examined 44 cases in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia and found that violent attacks on Roma were utterly inadequately prosecuted and that no convictions were brought at all. Many law enforcement agencies are totally blind when it comes to the Roma. Moreover, the Czech Senate unabashedly confirmed recently that it will not participate in a Roma strategy. That is apartheid in action at the heart of Europe. We have to do something about this.
There will also be a price to pay for the fact that the Roma framework strategy does not lay down any binding requirements and that the subject of anti-racism does not form part of this strategy. I can say to you quite honestly that enough is enough.; I would ask the Commission how long it intends to continue to sit back and watch. Where is the consistency in its actions when it comes, for example, to framework decisions for combating racism and the Anti-discrimination Directive being implemented – properly implemented – in the Member States?
Article 7 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union provides for the possibility of action being taken against Member States that have seriously breached the values of the EU. I therefore call on you most urgently to make use of this provision. After all, we must defend the rights and freedoms of the Roma as European citizens. Who will do that if we do not?"@en1
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