Positie Slowaakse EU-ambassadeur onzeker na kwetsende uitlatingen over Roma-zigeuners (en)

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The EU ambassador to Slovakia has been asked to resign by a Roma NGO following alleged controversial comments made in a recent TV interview.

According to the European Roma Information office (ERIO), Eric Van der Linden told Dutch TV on 1 May that Roma children should be removed from their parents and sent to boarding school.

"It may sound simplistic but, it is, I think, in the root of the cause that we need to strengthen education and organise the educational system in a way that we may have to start to, I'll say it in quotation marks, force Romani children to stay in a kind of boarding school from Monday morning until Friday afternoon".

"The generation that will be educated then and at the same time raised, will fit better in the dominant society, they will be able to cooperate in a productive way to the growth of the economy", said Mr Van der Linden, according to ERIO.

To help persuade parents who may not want their children to go to school, the Dutchman suggested a financial incentive.

"You can of course try to let it develop more smoothly through giving financial incentives".

His comments have been condemned by ERIO, a Brussels-based NGO representing Roma rights.

The organisation wrote a letter to European Commission president Romano Prodi asking for Mr Van der Linden's resignation.

For its part, the European Commission on Thursday (13 May) said it had not yet heard an official translation of the transcript.

Lack of education

"We are in the process of verifying this. We have asked for a translation of the programme and the quotes that were used in this programme", said a Commission spokesperson.

"What I can say, however, on a more general basis is that since the beginning of the enlargement process, the Commission has pointed at serious problems facing the Roma community in the new member states i.e. poverty, discrimination, social exclusion ... lack of education".

"We have urged member states to develop comprehensive strategies aiming at the social improvement of the Roma, in particular through education and training".

There are sizeable Roma populations in three current member states - Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia and two future EU member states: Bulgaria and Romania.