The UN’s Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination sharply criticised France’s crackdown and said racism and xenophobia were undergoing a “significant resurgence”” (BBC 2010). There has also been criticism from other groups including the Vatican and other Church leaders, the UN’s Committee on Elimination of Racial Discrimination, and the Romanian President Traian Basescu. “Romanian President Traian Basescu said he understood “the problems created by the Roma camps outside the French cities” but he insisted on the “right of every European citizen to move freely in the EU”.
Over the past couple years, member states of the EU have worked to develop a strategy/framework to help integrate the long-marginalized Roma people into European society by the year of 2020. The European Commission then assessed these strategies in a composed response titled National Roma Integration Strategies: a first step in the implementation of the EU Framework: “In recent years, the situation of Roma [1] has increasingly become the centre of political attention for Europe. Roma – Europe’s largest minority of about 10 to 12 million people – are very often the victims of racism, discrimination and social exclusion and live in deep poverty lacking access to healthcare and decent housing. Many Roma women and children are victims of violence, exploitation and trafficking in human beings[2], including within their own communities. Many Roma children are on the streets instead of going to school. Lagging education levels and discrimination in labour markets have led to high unemployment and inactivity rates or low quality, low skill and low paid jobs for Roma. This causes a loss of potential which renders the endeavour to secure growth even more difficult[3]. Better integration of Roma is therefore both a moral and an economic imperative, which moreover will require a change of mindsets of the majority of the people as well as of members of the Roma communities.”
Paris is always a good idea. 