Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-07-07-Speech-1-131"
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"en.20080707.18.1-131"2
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"Mr President, digital fingerprints are a modern version of Nazi methods to distinguish gypsies from other citizens. The digital fingerprints database is the most brutal revival of racism since 1940-1945 – for the fingerprints are a state-authorised first step to facilitate mass evictions of an ethnic group. Most of the Roma who are legally crossing the borders of an increasingly borderless Europe are poor and badly educated. What they basically need is a place to stay. Poverty should be solved on the spot, not by evictions, and let us keep in mind that Roma are the largest minority in Europe – not less than 19 Member States have a population smaller than the European Roma community.
During Communism, Roma had jobs and free access to health care and education; after Communism their living standards dropped. But the poverty was a fertile soil for fund-raising. The gypsy industry emerged; NGOs like Oxfam and CARE made big money as executors of projects. But Roma hardly benefited, and moved to the West as soon as they were allowed to. Pushed by the Council of Ministers to examine policies to improve Roma inclusion, the Commission admits the urgency of this in a document of 2 July. It refers to the European Parliament resolution for a European framework strategy and it recognises its role as a coordinator – finally! In the document, under the heading ‘Lessons learned’, I read ‘For effective Roma inclusion, the full involvement of civil society and in particular Roma NGOs is a factor for success.’ Roma have become partners! I hope we will soon see how this will be feasible within a structure of the Commission itself.
Meanwhile I strongly advise the Commission to study the OSCE action plan. Why reinvent the wheel? Finally, I call upon the Commission to make clear to the Italian Government that fascist rule is in contradiction with EU law, and that Roma victims who lost their property should be compensated. Once Italy exported fashion; nowadays it exports racism."@en1
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