The Roma are EU citizens too

Svetoslav Terziev comments on a debate about the Roma which took place in the European Parliament this week. "The conclusion was that the Roma should remain where they are and the EU should restrict itself to providing funding. Between 2004 and 2006, 60 million euros were spent on the integration of Roma in Bulgaria and Romania, where 40 percent of all Roma in the EU live, whereas 275 million were spent on the rest of Europe's Roma population. These are not great sums - but they demonstrate where most of the EU funding is going: to those countries where the living standard is highest. For a people with Nomadic roots it has therefore become only natural to move from the East to the West. After all, the representatives of the 'settled' peoples are doing the same thing, so why should the Roma be deprived of this right? Europe must understand that the Roma are now EU citizens like the rest of us. ... We can't confine them to the giant ghettoes of Bulgaria and Romania because that contradicts their nomadic culture - and also the EU's basic principle of non-discrimination."

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