EU officials denounce attacks on Gypsies in Italy

European Union officials on Tuesday denounced attacks on Roma camps in Italy and warned against expelling citizens of other EU states on the grounds of their ethnic origin.

Attackers set fire to shacks where Gypsies lived on the outskirts of the Italian city of Naples last week, following an alleged attempt

by a Gypsy youth to kidnap a baby from a home in a Naples suburb.

There have been increasing calls by conservative politicians for harsher measures against foreigners in Italy. Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi will lead a Cabinet meeting in Naples on Wednesday. Among measures expected to be decided is a crackdown on illegal immigration and on foreigners who commit crimes.

Foreign Minister Franco Frattini, who until last month was the EU commissioner dealing with justice and home affairs issues, said his government would seek to expel «those who violate the law and the principles of civil coexistence, effective immediately.

EU Social Affairs Commissioner Vladimir Spidla told the European Parliament, which has requested a debate on the issue, that expelling EU citizens was «an extreme measure.

«The Roma people … need to have the same liberties, the same rights as the others. They are not third country immigrants, they are citizens of the European Union and they should not be discriminated against,» he said.

German lawmaker Martin Schulz, chairman of the Socialists in the EU assembly, added: «The problem is not exclusively an Italian matter. … Throughout Europe we have an inadequate level of integration of minorities into society.

In many European countries Gypsies remain at risk of social exclusion, despite government programs designed to integrate them into mainstream society, according to the council.

Roma are now one of the largest, poorest, and fastest growing minorities in Europe, with a total population on the continent estimated at between 7 and 9 million.