"If I were an Italian citizen, I would seek security in my country for myself and my family. But at the same time I would be ashamed at the state in which so many Romany camps are": Adrian Severin, Romanian MEP, comments the situation that has come into being in Italy after the killing of a woman in Rome, which a Romany, from his own country, has been charged with. At the debate held at the EU Parliament yesterday, Severin asked for a resolution that will "reassert the European values" of tolerance and integration. The MEP explains: "What happened is extremely serious. But we cannot blame a whole people for that. We have to admit for example that even in Italy there are many legal immigrants who work and pay their taxes". "Xenophobic and racist behaviours will not be tolerated. We have to punish offenders, not empower despicable forms of racism". The Socialist delegate adds: "As a European and a democratic, I cannot admit that diversity will generate intolerance, discrimination. More security he adds cannot mean reducing civil rights, and Romania cannot become the ghetto of the Romanies in Europe".
