The EU executive on Wednesday backed away from a confrontation with France over French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s anti-Roma campaign, widely viewed as breaking European law and human rights rules.
In his first annual “state of the union” address, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso delivered veiled criticism for the first time of the French government’s deportation of hundreds of Roma families in recent weeks.
He told the European parliament in Strasbourg that the rights of the EU’s biggest ethnic minority — the 12 million-strong Roma community — had to be protected and warned European leaders to steer clear of the racism and discrimination of the past.
However, Barroso failed to mention France explicitly and at a meeting with Sarkozy in Paris on Tuesday evening, according to officials in Brussels, he agreed to avoid turning the expulsion of thousands of Roma, or Gypsies, from France into “a controversy.”
Liberals, Greens and social democratic members of the European Parliament (MEPs) on Wednesday accused the commission of a whitewash, while Sarkozy’s parliamentary allies in the center-right European People’s party nervously sought to defeat a parliamentary resolution denouncing French government “racism.”
The commission is the guardian of the EU treaties and has to rule on whether any of the 27 governments in the union are breaking European law.
Viviane Reding, the commissioner for justice and fundamental rights who has held several rounds of talks with the French authorities and has raised questions about the treatment of the Roma, stunned MEPs by praising Paris and ducking the key issue of whether the Sarkozy government was flouting the law.
She told the parliament in Strasbourg that the commission was taking “a clear but balanced position on the matter” and that she had received “very positive” signals from the French government.
She was repeatedly heckled during her speech.
“It is so important that French [Immigration] Minister Eric Besson assured us publicly that the French authorities would treat all citizens in the same way and that there was no targeted action against the Roma or any other group and that the French authorities would do their best to act scrupulously in line with EU law. I see this insurance given by Minister Besson as a very positive development,” she said.
Her remarks appeared to relate to the future conduct of the French authorities and not to the measures they have taken since July when Sarkozy announced his crackdown on Gypsy immigrants — EU citizens — from Romania and Bulgaria.
Since July, the French have demolished scores of Roma encampments and expelled nearly 1,000 members of the community, attracting strong criticism from the Vatican, the UN, rights groups and opposition leaders in France. The Sarkozy policy has also split his own Cabinet, but has been cheered by the extreme right across Europe.
“The commission has let the French off the hook. It has failed to do its job and it is setting a precedent for other countries,” said Claude Moraes, a Labour MEP on the parliament’s civil liberties committee. “France’s actions are illegal — pure and simple. It is a sad indictment of this commission that it has failed to stand up for the rule of law in the face of a large EU member state. President Sarkozy must be made accountable for this racist policy. The European Commission should be using all the tools available to bring France into line with EU law.”
Last week, Reding and two other European commissioners raised strong doubts about the French government’s conduct, but delayed any conclusive verdict on the Sarkozy policy. She had been expected to go much further on Wednesday.
Barroso has been repeatedly charged with failing to stand up to the big EU member states when it matters. The decision to back down over the Roma reinforced those views.
On Wednesday night, social democrats, liberals and Greens were trying to agree on a common formula that could command a wafer-thin majority while denouncing the French. The resolution goes to a vote today. While the resolution has only verbal force, it would represent an unusual blow to French prestige, with the European parliament sitting in Strasbourg in France condemning its host government.
READINESS: According to a survey of 2,000 people, 86 percent of Swedes believe the country is worth defending in the event of a military attack Swedes are stocking up on food items in case of war, as more conflict in Europe no longer feels like a distant possibility, and authorities encourage measures to boost readiness. At a civil preparedness fair in southwest Stockholm, 71-year-old Sirkka Petrykowska said that she is taking the prospect of hostilities seriously and preparing as much as she can. “I have bought a camping stove. I have taken a course on preservation in an old-fashioned way, where you can preserve vegetables, meat and fruit that lasts for 30 years without a refrigerator,” Petrykowska said. “I’ve set aside blankets for warmth, I
FRUSTRATIONS: One in seven youths in China and Indonesia are unemployed, and many in the region are stuck in low-productivity jobs, the World Bank said Young people across Asia are struggling to find good jobs, with many stuck in low-productivity work that the World Bank said could strain social stability as frustrations fuel a global wave of youth-led protests. The bank highlighted a persistent gap between younger and more experienced workers across several Asian economies in a regional economic update released yesterday, noting that one in seven young people in China and Indonesia are unemployed. The share of people now vulnerable to falling into poverty is now larger than the middle class in most countries, it said. “The employment rate is generally high, but the young struggle to
ENERGY SHIFT: A report by Ember suggests it is possible for the world to wean off polluting sources of power, such as coal and gas, even as demand for electricity surges Worldwide solar and wind power generation has outpaced electricity demand this year, and for the first time on record, renewable energies combined generated more power than coal, a new analysis said. Global solar generation grew by a record 31 percent in the first half of the year, while wind generation grew 7.7 percent, according to the report by the energy think tank Ember, which was released after midnight yesterday. Solar and wind generation combined grew by more than 400 terawatt hours, which was more than the increase in overall global demand during the same period, it said. The findings suggest it is
‘ARMED CONFLICT’: At least 21 people have died in such US attacks, while experts say the summary killings are illegal even if they target confirmed narcotics traffickers US forces on Friday carried out a strike on an alleged drug-smuggling boat off the coast of Venezuela, killing four people, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said. The latest strike, which Hegseth announced in a post on X, brings the number of such US attacks to at least four, leaving at least 21 people dead. An accompanying video shared by Hegseth showed a boat speeding across the waves before being engulfed in smoke and flames. “Four male narco-terrorists aboard the vessel were killed,” the Pentagon chief wrote. He said the strike “was conducted in international waters just off the
RSS