Ienglish furder down.

Någon har frågat mig om jag har mer information om romerna, och det har jag ju. Det har faktiskt hänt en hel del de senaste dagarna:

Kommissionens president Sr Barroso ska, tillsammans med Frankrikes inrikesminister Mr Fillon, ska hålla en workshop om romadeportationer. Bara de fem största medlemsländernas ministrar är inbjudna till evenemanget, men ministerrådets ordförandeland Belgien har enligt EUObserver hotat att bojkotta evenemanget (kolla här för ett vidare perspektiv). Samtidigt har FN-kommittéen mot etnisk diskriminering uttalat kritik.

Aleksandar Blagojevic från serbiska Piratska partija har frågat mig om jag har mer information om deportationen av romer, så jag ska recappa lite nedan på engelska:

Italy has been saving fingerprints of Romas since 2008 to combat (these things are always combatted, never preempted, constructively analysed or prevented) crime. Now the French president Mr Sarkoszy wants to deport Romas, from France back to Bulgaria and Romania (where they hold citizenship), because they disturb the public order, act criminally and leech from the system.

The Commission for Freedom, Security and Justice, Viviane Reding of the Luxemburg liberal party will keep an eye on the deportations to make sure they don't breach for example the principle of free movement for people within the Union.

But Sarkoszy's conservative party UPC is mumbling about the deportations being measures going to far. The Italian minister of internal affairs, though, is very excited about the enteprise and exclaimed in an Italian newspaper that his government suggested something similar as many as 2 years ago.

Now, interestingly enough, in 2008 the Commissioner for Freedom, Security and Justice was called Jacques Barrot. He was from the French conservative party UPC - Sarkoszy's party (see above). Barrot told Italy in 2008 that deportating people this way was clearly in breach of EU law. The memory of EU institutions is apparently shorter than we want it to be...

To add a bizarre twist to the story, the president of the Commission, Sr Barroso and the French minister of internal affairs Mr Fillon are now going to hold a workshop(!!) about legal deportations. Only the ministers from the five largest member states are invited, but Belgium, being the present chairperson in the Council of Ministers have, according to EUObserver, threatened to boycott the event (for perspectives, see here). At the same time UN committee against racial discrimination has criticized the French measure for being arbitrary.

UPDATE: Romas are apparently deported from a large number of member states, due to a special provision in the ascension protocols of Bulgaria and Romania into the union limiting the freedom of movement principle for citizens from these nations until 2013. Sweden has also deported Romas.