Fundamental Rights Commissioner Viviane Reding appeared to play for time, as in a much-awaited debate on the Roma controversy in the Strasbourg plenary, she said her services had not yet obtained or analysed information from France over the controversial expulsions.
She also pointed out that the Commission had found that not all relevant EU legislation was taken on board by the French authorities, stressing that she had sent them a letter informing them of this.
Reding spelled out a number of measures taken by the EU executive to address the needs of the Roma minority, including establishing a task force to beef up the efficient allocation of targeted funds, a Jumbo Council gathering member states and several commissioners with relevant portfolios, a call on future presidencies to do more for Roma inclusion, and measures to counter human trafficking, which is a particular risk for this minority.
"We cannot simply declare war on a member state," Reding said.
The explanations by Reding infuriated S&D (Socialists & Democrats) vice-chair Hannes Swoboda (Austria), who said that that even European Commission President José Manuel Barroso had been more outspoken than her over the issue during his speech in the morning (EurActiv 07/09/10).
"Is France in breach of EU law or not?" Swoboda fumed, accusing Reding of believing anything that French State Secretary for European Affairs Pierre Lellouche had told her at a recent meeting to clarify the situation (EurActiv 01/09/10).
"This in no way corresponds to your job as commissioner," Swoboda went on, insisting that such a lax attitude from the EU executive would act as an encouragement for other countries, such as Italy or Hungary, to expel or crack down on their Roma.
On behalf of the liberal ALDE group, Renate Weber (Romania) said France was showing treachery by bribing Roma with 300 euros to make them leave the country.
She argued that the Roma who signed the receipts were not aware of the consequences, and that the model was likely to be copied by Italy. Italian MEPs immediately cried foul and booed the speaker.
During the debate, another 30 MEPs expressed their disappointment, with those from the left, the liberal and green groups pointing to what they saw as failure by France to abide by EU legislation.
In particular, it was stressed that recent EU legislation required an advanced notification of one month before a EU national can be expelled, which they said was not respected. Also, they spoke out against what they saw as a failure by France to proceed on a case-by-case basis, as well as against the stigmatisation of Roma as criminals.
More radically, the leftist GUE/NGL group called the mass expulsions "deportations".
Political games
For their part, the centre-right EPP (European People's Party) group and the conservative ECR (European Conservatives and Reformists) pointed to the fact that their political opponents had been politicising the controversy and had little interest in addressing the real issues of the Roma minority.
Timothy Kirkhope, deputy chair of the ECR group, advised MEPs to hold their fire until the Commission had produced a formal ruling, rather than hastily condemning a member country.
Simon Busuttil of the EPP group (Malta) argued that the Roma were in fact trapped by political manipulation, and he denounced the "Shameful political game" being played by the left side of the hemicycle.
Accusations triggered counter-accusations, with French member Sylvie Guillaume of the S&D group pointing out that political manipulation as she saw it had in fact started in France, where a more and more unpopular president had politicised the Roma issue to please part of the electorate.
Baroness Sarah Ludford (ALDE; UK) saw weaknesses in the French defence strategy, pointing to statements according to which the country never took into account each citizen's ethnic background, and others according to which every fourth crime was committed by a Roma.
Strangely enough, there were few speakers from the French centre-right. Neither were there many statements by MEPs from Romania and Bulgaria, the countries of origin of the Roma expelled.
