EU takes legal action against France over Roma policy (Roundup)

Sep 29, 2010, 16:44 GMT

Brussels/Paris - The European Commission took the unprecedented step Wednesday of taking legal action against France over its expulsion of Roma migrants, but said that it did not believe Paris was acting in a discriminatory way.

The European Union has been engaged in a furious row with Paris over its policy of deporting Roma, or Gypsies, from camps within France.

Viviane Reding, the bloc's justice commissioner, had earlier this month likened France's treatment of Roma to Nazi-era deportations of Jews and Gypsies.

However on Wednesday, the commission decided to sue France on a procedural matter, saying that the country had not yet implemented EU directives on the free movement of citizens.

'The commission considers that France has not yet transposed the directive on free movement into national legislation that makes these rights fully effective and transparent,' commission spokeswoman Pia Ahrenkilde told reporters.

France escaped all censure on the second issue of ethnic discrimination, which Reding had raised after a leaked government memo showed that French police had been ordered to close at least 300 camps of illegal migrants within three months, 'with priority on the Roma.'

France has already amended the offending document to strike out any references to the Roma. European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso said this, along with other 'assurances' given by the French, had been enough to stave off separate legal proceedings.

Ahrenkilde said France also won a delay in the legal action, as a 'letter of formal notice,' representing the first stage in the EU infringement mechanism, would only be sent after October 15.

France will escape legal proceedings altogether if it gives a clear outline of plans to amend its national legislation in line with EU demands before that deadline, Ahrenkilde indicated.

In a further concession, the spokeswoman said other EU capitals might be targeted in October alongside Paris over the implementation of the free movement directive.

'The commission is analysing the situation of all other EU member states ... Consequently, it will send a letter of formal notice in similar cases' to France, Ahrenkilde said.

In a statement, the commission indicated it had accepted a pledge by France to 'fully ensure an effective and non-discriminatory application of EU law' and added it had urged Paris in writing to explain how it intended to follow suit on its 'political assurances.'

'France is pleased not to have been accused of discrimination by the European Commission regarding its policy of Roma expulsions and is ready to provide more information to Brussels,' a French Foreign Ministry spokesman reacted in Paris.

In Brussels, Reding rejected any suggestion of an EU executive climbdown, as she claimed in a video message that the commission had 'acted firmly' and was 'determined to uphold EU law ... (in) all member states, whether big or small.'

France has faced international criticism since late July, when its authorities began dismantling illegal Gypsy camps and paying hundreds of Roma living there to return to fellow EU members Romania and Bulgaria, where many of the Roma hold citizenship.

EU laws allow for the expulsion of citizens from another EU state if they have no means to support themselves after a three-month stay or if they seriously threaten public order.

But they forbid any kind of ethnic discrimination, and state that each case must be assessed individually, preventing mass expulsions.

On Wednesday evening government spokesman Luc Chatel reasserted that France had not acted to discriminate against Roma.

'It is clear that we have never stigmatised the Roma,' he said.

'We merely implemented European law,' he added.