The European Commission said Wednesday that remarks made in "some" European Union countries about ethnic Romas were "openly discriminatory," but stopped short of condemning France for its controversial expulsion policy. France has been accused of racism since starting to dismantle Gypsy camps and repatriate the Roma living there to Romania and Bulgaria with the help of a 300-euro (385-dollar) payout. "I regret that some of the rethoric that has been used in some member states in the past weeks has been openly discriminatory and partly inflammatory," the EU's justice commissioner, Viviane Reding, said in a statement. Announcing the the crackdown on Roma in late July, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said the Gypsy camps were "sources of illegal trafficking, of profoundly shocking living standards, of exploitation of children for begging, of prostitution and crime". Reding said she was following events in France "with great attention and some concern" and confirmed she would check whether the expulsions complied with EU laws on free movement of people. At the weekend, Italy's Interior Minister Roberto Maroni backed the French moves, and said he would use a September 6 meeting in Paris with French, Spanish, British and German counterparts to push for a change in EU immigration laws, making expulsions easier. But the host, French Immigration Minister Eric Besson, said Wednesday the talks were called to discuss "asylum issues and the fight against irregular migration" and would not be "specifically covering a specific nationality or ethnic community." -- SPA
