European Commission to announce a set of social measures to protect Gypsies

The European Commission will announce today a set of social measures to protect the Gypsy communities, as part of a more complex social strategy developed since the latest European barometer shows that this ethnic community is most discriminated, Romanian monitoring agency Rador informs.

The study reveals that Italians and Czechs are most disturbed by Gypsies living there while some 42% of the Romanians declare they have friends coming among Gypsies. 47% of Italians and Czechs declare they would be very disturbed if their neighbors would be Gypsies.

Romania is way below the European average of tolerance towards this ethnic community with 20%. More than 40% of our co-nationals declare that they have Gypsy friends but Bulgarians seem to have more.

The study was released on Monday, one day before the Commission was to adopt a series of social measures to protect this community. Meanwhile, in Brussels, more and more voices argue that the Italian Interior minister actions to fingerprint all Gypsies was not a problem since the new passport will contain the fingerprints of the owner.