The overall position of Roma people in Europe will be debated in plenary session on Tuesday 7 September in Strasbourg.

Commission officials are currently examining evidence supplied by the French government to assess whether the returns comply with free movement law and with the European Charter of Fundamental Rights, which enshrines the principle of non-discrimination, which became binding when the Lisbon Treaty entered into force, said European Commission Director General for justice Françoise Le Bail.

‘Risk of contagion’

‘This is a European problem because the treaties have been breached’, affirmed Rita Borsellino (S&D, IT), adding that ‘Citizens have been discriminated on ethnic grounds’. She also warned that such measures could spread ‘by contagion’ to other countries.

Jan Mulder (ALDE, NL) voiced doubts as to whether the procedures used to return Roma to frontiers had been carried out individually, as required by European law. ‘So far as I know, the French courts already have the reply’, he declared.

‘Is fixing expulsion quotas not unlawful?’ asked Cornelia Ernst (GUE/NGL, DE). Marie-Christine Vergiat (GUE/NGL, FR) criticised ‘expeditious police procedures’ and ‘collective expulsions’, and urged the Commission to consult civil society in its evaluation of the case.

Achieving ‘an unparalleled integration of Roma people’

‘Parliament has several times called for an overall strategy to be put in place to integrate Roma people’, noted Kinga Göncz (S&D, HU). ‘This sad and deplorable affair calls deeply into question Europe’s founding freedoms and project’, said Hélène Flautre (Greens/EFA, FR). She advocated acting on the lessons of these events in order to ‘achieve an unparalleled integration of Roma people’ and urged the Commission to go beyond its current stance, which she described as that of an ‘honest broker’.