Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-03-11-Speech-2-214"
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"en.20030311.9.2-214"2
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".
Mr President, I am a little taken aback by Mr Evans' question, because there is hardly an issue that I have reported on more often to Parliament than the issue of the situation of the Roma in the Slovak Republic, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania. There is barely no other issue either that I myself, and the Commission as a whole, are working on as intensively as this one.
First and foremost I must remind you that discrimination against Roma is not only a sad fact of life in the future Member States, but that unfortunately we also find this in a whole series of current Member States. It is just that it is not as noticeable in the figures because there are not as many of them in the Member States.
The crucial point here is whether the constitution, the judicial system and the state administration system in the future Member States really do discriminate against the Roma or not. Our investigations – in agreement incidentally with the Council of Europe and a considerable number of human rights organisations – show that there is no as it were institutionalised discrimination against the Roma in either the constitution, legislation or administrative structure of these countries. What we do find is deeply rooted, traditional discrimination in society, which in some parts of these countries has taken on really tragic proportions. However, I must repeat that this is nothing new.
Our efforts have focused on ensuring that these countries develop a strategy to reduce the discrimination against the Roma. We have made it a political precondition for the conclusion of the enlargement negotiations for such strategies to exist and be in force. I have, however, always said – including here in this House – that we cannot expect social discrimination against the Roma to have been completely eliminated at the time of accession of the new Members. Neither can we say that there is absolutely no discrimination in the present Member States. I could name a series of cases of discrimination in our current Member States where we are also not saying that the fact that people are being discriminated against constitutes a violation of the Treaty. Instead we say that European Community law requires measures to be taken to put an end to this discrimination. That is the situation that we find in these countries.
In its pre-accession instruments the Commission addressed the needs of the Roma minorities in a big way. It has deployed a great deal of money, made significant human resources available and provided considerable advice to help the future Member States to develop and also apply a strategy to combat discrimination against the Roma.
I do not think that you will find anyone for miles around who is better acquainted with the reality of the situation faced by the Roma in these countries than I am. I never let a visit to these countries go by without addressing this problem directly and on the spot. I do not do this because I believe that I can solve the problem by visiting a Roma settlement, a Roma school or whatever it may be; I do it to make a powerful and symbolic contribution to shaping political ideas. I want the people in these countries to see on their television screens that when the Commission comes to their country it does not regard the Roma as untouchables, but as a section of the population that needs particular attention and particular care."@en1
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