MEP casts doubts on newest EU's human rights record

Bulgaria and Romania’s human rights record should not be overlooked, warned Roma MEP,Viktória Mohácsi on Wednesday.

Following the successful European Parliament vote to back Bulgaria and Romania’s EU entry, the Hungarian MEP, has warned that the candidate countries human rights record should not be overlooked.

Mohácsi, who voted in favour of the accession of Romania and Bulgaria on Wednesday, said that too much attention has been focused on corruption in the two candidates.

"Human rights are part of the fundamental values of the European Union. It is safe to say that neither candidate is free of human rights violations, with Roma in particular subject to abuse," Said Mohácsi.

"Let's go in with our eyes wide open"

"To improve the situation of the Roma, Romania and Bulgaria should step forward by reinforcing the protection of minority rights and combating racial discrimination, in particularly within state institutions."

Writing in the latest issue of the Parliament Magazine, Mohácsi warns of the institutionalised discrimination of the Roma she says is prevalent in the new member states.

A generation of Roma children are being denied a future says Mohácsi, by being racially segregated in mainstream schools and placed into institutions normally reserved for the mentally disabled.

“The fall in Communism in 1989 [has] brought with it an increased fervour in segregated schooling for Roma,” argues Mohácsi.  “A model not unlike the Nazi-style special schools of the Third Reich.”

Roma children are separated from an early age into ‘special schools’ in many central and Eastern member states, says Mohácsi.

They are euphemistically labelled as behaviourally challenged or mentally delayed, and only rarely reintegrateD back into mainstream education.

“A quick visit to special schools across central and Eastern Europe shows it is not uncommon for such schools to have a 90 per cent Roma enrolment rate,” says Mohácsi.

Racial discrimination is a fact of life across central and Eastern Europe and needs to be urgently tackled warns the Roma MEP.

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