Kommission warnt Italien wegen Ausweisung von Roma

"The Roma people [...] need to have the same liberties, the same rights as the others. They are not third country immigrants, they are citizens of the EU and they should not be discriminated against," Commissioner Spidla said. 

"I consider that the Roma cannot be victims of those who want to run a right-wing populist policy," PES leader Martin Schulz said. 

Romanian MEP Adrian Severin (PES), who is a former minister of foreign affairs, warned that "Roma-phobia" in Italy was combined with Romanian-phobia. "In Italy, a country worth our respect and love, the populist rethoric of some parties, united with the neo-fascist doctrine of the others, fuels inter-ethnic hatred, encourages anti-Roma pogroms and prepares the ground for new racial laws. In a very bizarre way, the Roma-phobia was combined with the Romanian-phobia," Severin said. 

Michael Roth, a parliamentary spokesman on European policy for Germany's ruling Social Democrats (SPD), said the Berlusconi government "is already showing its lack of respect for basic European rights". 

Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) leader Graham Watson said he was concerned that the upcoming Euro 2008 soccer match between Italy and Romania could be a flashpoint of violence. 

Italian MEP Romano Maria La Russa (Union for Europe of the Nations Group) said at the debate that the PES group is attempting to lambast a democratically elected government. "Roma are abducting children, they are stealing, this is the image they have," he said. 

Humgarian MEP Lívia Jároká (EPP-ED), who is of Roma ethnicity, described the situation of the Roma as "terrible everywhere in Europe," adding: "This is a question that should not be over-politicised [...] it is important that the Italian government should do its best to combat discrimination and not expel the Roma from Italy." 

Italian MEP Luca Romagnoli (NI) asked the Union to "create a Roma state in the East, where they could govern themselves autonomously". Commissioner Spidla said in his following statement that he found some of the MEPs comments "unacceptable".