Roma people: European Delegation on the roma prevents Everyone Group taking part in meeting at Palazzo Madama
Everyone: “a serious violation of freedom of expression in support of racist currents. We will report the episode to the European Mediator”
With an unprecedented decision, just a few minutes before the official meeting between the delegation of Euro MPs on their visit to Rome to observe the conditions of Roma people and the human rights organizations (set for Thursday September 18th at 6 p.m.) Gérard Deprez , the “Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs” Head of Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs of the European Parliament, communicated that the representatives of EveryOne Group had been excluded from the meeting. The representatives of EveryOne, Roberto Malini, Matteo Pegoraro, Dario Picciau and the Roma activist, Nico Grancea, who had previously been invited to the meeting, were denied entrance to Palazzo Madama, the seat of the Italian Senate.
The reasons given by Ana Dumitrache, the coordinator of the LIBE delegation, was the protest EveryOne had recently made to the European Parliament against the choice of members of the delegation.
“We had criticised the presence of a disproportionate number of Italian Euro MPs in the delegation”, explain the activists, “3 out of 7 of the inspectors and as many as 22 out of 29 of the observers. We also strongly protested against the presence in the delegation of exponents of the right-wing and far right-wing, people well-known for initiating heavy propaganda against the Roma people in Italy: Mario Borghezio, Luca Romagnoli, Roberto Fiore and several others. It is unthinkable that Italian Euro MPs are being sent to judge the work of the Italian Government and unacceptable from every point of view that extremists fighting against the presence of the Roma in Italy are chosen to be part of a body whose job it is to investigate the level of persecution of the “nomads” on behalf of the European Parliament.
The illegitimate decision to exclude an international human rights organisation from a meeting with the Euro MPs at the last minute – which will be reported to the European Mediator, Professor Nikiforos Diamandouros - is to be seen as antidemocratic behaviour, as well as a lack of respect towards the work of the European parliamentary groups, ALDE, PES, GUE/NGL and Greens/EFA who collaborate regularly with our group. Not since 1945 has an NGO been excluded from an institutional meeting linked to human rights, in violation of laws that protect the freedom of expression and criticism.”
This episode is a worrying symptom of how democracy, even European democracy, is seriously at risk and how diplomacy is making covert agreements on the lives of the Roma people in our country.
For further information:
Gruppo EveryOne
Tel: (+ 39) 334-8429527 - (+ 39) 331-3585406
