France Really Faces EU Infringement Procedure over Roma - Report

Bulgaria in EU | September 27, 2010, Monday

EU Commissioner for justice, fundamental rights and citizenship Viviane Reding was the first to announce (Sept. 14) that France might face an infringement procedure over the ousting of Roma. Photo by EPA/BGNES

The European Commission is very likely to start an infringement procedure against France over its policy of ousting Roma, according to information obtained by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

People and institutions in the EU are eager to hear EC decision due Wednesday whether it willll start a formal infringement procedure.

FAZ reports that "four more EU member states" are facing the same outlook, without mentioning which those are, and only pointing out that Germany is not among them.

The leading German daily writes that there is a "broad majority of EU commissioners" in favor of the launching of a formal infringement procedure against France.

The arguments for are that French authorities have not fulfilled a number of legal requirements when ousting individuals from the country.

Some 20 EC legal experts have been examining official documents furnished by French authorities over Roma expulsions.

According to FAZ information, they have determined that France has not sufficiently implemented EU freedom of movement legal norms, that give certain rights to European citizens about to be evicted.

Those norms requre authorities to examine a number of personal circumstances of the persons involved, such as length of stay, health, ties to the home country. This has not been implemented in French national legislation, which gives the Commission enough ground to start an infringement procedure.

The FAZ also reports on the fate of the controversial circular letter from the French Ministry of Interior to local prefectures, instructing them to specifically target Roma camps in their operations.

According to information from the paper, the fact that the circular has been repealed and that two relevant French Ministers have stated that they were not aware of it has been viewued by the EC as an "important political concession" on the part of France.

The Franfurter Allgemeine reminds that should the Commission choose to start a procedure, then it first will issue recommendations of policy change, which, if not fulfilled, will lead to filing the case with the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg.