The murder of the wife of an Italian naval officer, allegedly committed by a Romanian citizen of Roma origin, caused a veritable hysteria in Italian society and the media. In Italy, several Romanians were attacked, a shop owned by Romanian immigrants was bombed, and Romanian footballer Adrian Mutu, who plays for an Italian club, was booed because of his nationality. The scandal also spread to Romanian media.
Obviously, immigration is a sore problem in many countries, and Italy is no exception. It is also obvious that the situation is being used for political purposes: the political situation in Italy is unstable, and many believe that early parliamentary elections are inevitable. The crisis is being exploited both by political forces traditionally hostile to immigrants and by the Italian authorities. The Prodi government is demonstrating its resolve and issuing a decree giving prefects the right to expel from the country anyone they consider “dangerous” to society. The first batch of Romanian citizens with past criminal records has already been deported to their “historical homeland.”
The Romanian authorities have appealed to EU bodies to adjudicate whether the actions of the Italian authorities comply with EU directives. More specifically, this concerns Directive 2004/38/EC, which specifies the exceptional cases in which EU citizens can be expelled from one EU country to another. While EU leadership reviews the Romanian complaint, EU Commissioner for Justice, Freedom and Security Franco Frattini (Italy's foreign minister under Silvio Berlusconi's government) gave his assessment of the situation. He found nothing in what is happening in Italy that contradicts European principles. Romanian authorities have a different opinion. Romanian Foreign Minister Adrian Cioroianu stated that he is outraged not so much by the text of Prodi's decree itself as by the way it is being implemented.
It is hard to disagree with him. According to the EU directive, people must be notified of a proposed expulsion at least 30 days in advance, so that they have time to appeal the authorities' decision. Moreover, collective expulsions, which are currently being practiced, are unacceptable. The concept of “serious threat” is not defined in the EU directive, which gives authorities broad discretion.
The European Commission is not inclined to see what is happening in Italy as a problem. It turns a blind eye to the violation of the rights of citizens of an EU member state – the blatant discrimination against Romanian citizens. So far, only Graham Watson, leader of the Liberals in the European Parliament, has expressed outrage. He considers that people cannot be expelled from a country solely on the grounds that they pose a “potential threat.”
In Romania, it is believed that the current situation is also the fault of the Italian authorities, who turned a blind eye to minor crimes committed by immigrants in the country, as well as to the problem of Roma camps. Romanians are also outraged that one of the most active participants in the anti-Romanian campaign unfolding in Italy is the granddaughter of Benito Mussolini, the leader of the Italian fascists. Romanian media also remind of the contribution Romanians have made to Italy's economy. According to some estimates, they bring the country about €12 billion annually. Romania itself has taken a number of measures aimed at easing the situation. Thirty Romanian police officers have been sent to Italy, five of whom are ethnic Roma. Additionally, Romania plans to open new consulates in Italy.
Interestingly, while ignoring the obvious violations against Romanian citizens, the EU also tries to turn a blind eye to the ethnicity of those at the center of the scandal – the Roma. The union's authorities see only that the criminals are Romanian citizens. At the same time, many in Romania are ready to support even harsher measures against compatriots who have broken the law in Italy. They regret that their criminal fellow countrymen will return home. The Romanian authorities are forcing the EU to address the Roma problem and remind that when they admitted Romania into the European Union, Europeans could not have been unaware of what enlargement would entail under conditions of free movement.
The attitude of the vast majority of Romanians towards the Roma cannot be called benevolent – it is believed that they are responsible for most offenses. However, the Roma side of the problem is hardly discussed in the EU. The Roma in the EU are a group that receives a lot of attention. Brussels funds numerous research programs aimed at studying the Roma and improving their situation in Romania. At the same time, the dark side of many Roma families' lives is a taboo topic, and Romanian authorities are constantly criticized by EU officials for failing to ensure sufficient integration of the Roma into Romanian society.
In an address dedicated to the events in Italy, Romanian President Traian Băsescu stated that the unhealthy situation with Romanian citizens of Roma origin in Italy did not arise yesterday. He emphasized that the Italian authorities had failed to integrate them into society and concluded that the issue should be addressed at the EU level, not by individual countries.
The EU does not want to notice that traditional integration methods with respect to certain minorities, and in particular the Roma, are not working. Romanians are stigmatized for lacking integration skills, as the EU tries to pin a pan-European problem on one country. When the problem escalates, as it now has in Italy, the “long-suffering” Romanians are again to blame – it is they who bear the brunt of the local population's anger.
The current crisis can be viewed as a model of conflict related to immigrants and national minorities in the EU. First, the specifics of a certain ethnic group (Gypsies or, for example, French Arabs) are ignored. Then integration (often in fact pseudo-integration) is carried out based on abstract principles of protecting minority rights with an eye to preserving identity. As a result, the lack of genuine desire to integrate the group (which inevitably requires attempts to culturally assimilate it) leads to its isolation-self-isolation. When the failure of the policy becomes obvious, a surge of xenophobia follows, and respect for human rights is no longer discussed.
The EU should seriously think about this, since the current crisis is, first of all, a failure of EU integration policy as a whole. The European Union is suffering defeat both at the level of integrating new EU countries (their problems are simply ignored) and at the level of integrating national minorities in the “new” and “old” Europe.
Alexei TIMOFEEV.
Rosbalt News Agency