EU takes legal action against France over Roma

[pampango]

Source: BBC

The European Commission is to launch legal proceedings against France over its expulsion of Romanian and Bulgarian Roma (Gypsy) migrants.

Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding said France had failed to respect European rules on freedom of movement.

The controversial expulsions of thousands of Roma led to a serious row between Brussels and Paris.

"France is not enforcing European law as it should on free movement, so we are launching an infringement process against France," Ms Reding told France 24 television.

Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11437361

[ensho]

1. good

nt

[T. Count]

2. Shouldn't they do the same for countries like Germany?

Oh, I forgot. Germany basically runs the EU.

[Poll_Blind]

3. Backstory from August: France: Sarkozy's Gypsy crackdown begins

From AFP via Google News.

PB

[dipsydoodle]

4. From memory

part of the issue revolves around country of origin as not all countries have all rights within the EU until specified dates - I think that's for freedom to work. The question of them just being there in France is a different matter. Even the French know that if they deport them they can walk straight back in provided they have some form of documentation , passport whatever , to substantiate they are in fact from an EU country and not from Turkey for example.

[boppers]

8. Provided they have their "papers"...

That would be part of the problem.

[Nihil]

9. If they haven't, maybe *they* are the problem after all?

(i.e., despite the desperate DU desire for exceptionalism, the "Roma" do still
have to play by the same rules as the rest of the real world once in a while)

:shrug:

[pampango]

10. They must have some form of documentation or France wouldn't know which country to deport them to.

I haven't read that the French government claims that the Roma do not have document, but that they are breaking other French laws. I'm sure the French government doesn't just pick a destination country at random, so they must have documentation as to their country of origin.

Roma who are from an EU country have different rights from Roma who are from a non-EU country, just like a German (EU) citizen has different rights in France than an American (non-EU) citizen. All EU countries have open travel/immigration borders with each other, but not with the rest of the world.

[pampango]

5. Roma ultimatum given to France by EU: allow free movement or face court

Brussels ups ante in row over Gypsy expulsions as European commissioners vote unanimously for action

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/sep/29/roma-ultimatum-france-eu-court



France was warned by the European authorities today that it would face disciplinary proceedings and possible court action if EU freedom of movement is not enshrined in French law by next month.

The ultimatum from Brussels, in a letter to the French government from the European commission, upped the ante in the ferocious row over France's treatment of immigrant Gypsies, a dispute that hijacked a recent EU summit and saw insults traded over the second world war.

All 27 European commissioners decided today to set France a deadline of 15 October to remedy the member state's failure to observe European law, namely a directive from 2004 giving all EU citizens freedom of movement across the union.

"France is not applying European law as it should," said Viviane Reding, the commissioner for justice and fundamental rights who sparked one of the worst rows in the EU for years this month by calling French treatment of Roma immigrants from Romania "a disgrace" and "appalling", reminiscent of the persecution they suffered in Vichy France during the war.

[ZombieHorde]

6. Very interesting, thanks for posting. nt

[boppers]

7. Porajmos started this way.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porajmos

"Oh, we're just deporting them" my ass.