Aurescu: France deported Roma for 'future crime'

Brussels - Bogdan Aurescu, State Secretary in the Romanian Minister of Foreign Affairs, said that France has deported Roma people not on the basis of crimes they have committed, but on the basis of the possibility that they will commit crimes in the future.

The declaration was made in Brussels after the meeting between Bogdan Aurescu and Viviane Reding, the European Commissioner for Justice and Fundamental Rights, Romanian press agency Mediafax reports. According to Aurescu, France is not right when using public order as an argument to send Romanian citizens back to Bucharest. The Romanian State Secretary said that the information provided by France shows that only 708 Romanian citizens were imprisoned last year in this country, which represents 0.3% from the total of foreigners accused of having committed crimes in France. Bogdan Aurescu also told the Romanian press that none of the 500 Romanian citizens that were sent back to their home country had any criminal record in France or Romania. He also pointed out that setting up a minimum income for a stay shorter than three months of a European Union citizen, in another EU state than his own, is an abuse which will affect the right of free movement of EU citizens from Central and Eastern Europe. “We explained to the European Commission that the solution to the problem of the Roma community is not a ping-pong game with these people. France cannot remove them from its territory without respecting the European Directive 38/2004, it cannot stop them from coming back, and Romania doesn’t have any right to stop them from moving freely as European citizens”, said Bogdan Aurescu. He also stated that Romania will not tolerate the discrimination of Romanian citizens of any ethnic background. The State Secretary declared that its country is fully open to cooperation with France on the issue. Bogdan Aurescu was part of a delegation of three Romanian State Secretaries who came to Brussels this week to discuss the Roma issue and to underline the right of any Romanian citizen to move freely in the European Union.