Romania with All-out Condemnation of France's Roma Expulsion

Romanian president Traian Basescu (R) and French President Nicolas Sarkozy at the start of a European Union heads of state and govt summit in Brussels, 16 Sept. Photo by EPA/BGNES

The two chambers of the Romanian Parliament have denounced the expulsion of Roma by the French authorities, while the Romanian President Basescu admitted he asked Sarkozy to terminate the measures.

"The Chamber of Representatives and the Senate note with concern the recent actions of the French authorities and other European states against groups of ethnic Roma who are Romanian citizens and are expelled or repatriated... We believe that these actions are a serious breach of the rights and freedoms of the citizens," the Romanian Parliament said in a communique with respect to the much controversial campaign of French President Sarkozy and the French government crack down on Romanian and Bulgarian Roma living in squatter communities across France.

The measures led to much criticism of France, including on part of the European Commission since the deported Roma are EU citizens.

While the Bulgarian government has reacted with no criticism against France, apparently fearing the latter might move to block Bulgaira's accession to the Schengen Agreement expected to take place in 2011, on Wednesday, the Romanian Parliament hailed the EC, the European Parliament, and the UN for slamming Paris over the Roma issue.

Furthermore, it fended off any attempts to connect the Roma expulsion with the functioning of the Romanian judiciary and Romania's accession to the Schengen Agreement.

The Roma minority in Romania is estimated to be between 500 000 and 2-3 million. On September 29, the European Commission is expected to decide whether to start an infringement procedure against France for violating EU legislation by expelling EU citizens.

Speaking on Wednesday, Romanian President Traian Basescu admitted that during the EU Council meeting last week he asked French President Sarkozy to stop the deportation of the Roma but did not get "a clear answer."

"The answer was not clear but we will discuss the issue when we meet up in the coming weeks," Basescu told foreign journalists in Bucharest, as cited by BGNES.

He said that the pictures of the two where they both gesture a lot did not mean a fight, and that they had friendly relations.

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