EU Accession: Minority Protection (Hansard, 18 November 1997)

§ Lord Whitty
My Lords, there are significant problems concerning minority nationalities in a number of eastern and central European countries. There are Roma communities in several of them. Protecting minorities from discrimination is one of the qualifying criteria for EU accession. The British Government support strongly all efforts to address shortcomings in the treatment of minorities in all the applicant countries. We endorse the EC's proposals for accession partnerships with which any problems in those areas can be resolved (as they must be) before accession to the EU. In the meantime our own Know-How Fund is also working hard to promote the protection of minorities throughout central Europe.

§ Baroness Williams of Crosby
My Lords, I thank the Minister for that helpful reply. Is he aware that the 458 most recent reports indicate a sharp rise in racial attacks in the Czech Republic last year—some three times the number of racial attacks in the previous year? Is he aware also that under the Copenhagen Summit the protection of minorities is a condition of membership of the EU? Will he therefore assure the House that the British Government will make strong representations to the Czech Republic to take vigorous action to protect its Roma minority and, among other things, to prevent the outward movement of many Roma into countries that they regard as less likely to persecute them?

§ Lord Whitty
My Lords, the noble Baroness is right that the protection of minorities and civil rights in general is one of the Copenhagen criteria, and therefore has been relevant to the Commission's opinion on the applications of the Czech Republic, Slovakia and other eastern European countries. There has been considerable evidence—some of it in our own media—of the level of racism against the Roma minorities in those countries. Some of it is public antagonism to the minority rather than institutionalised state racism. Nevertheless, there is clearly an obligation on those states to protect their minorities more effectively than they have done. Some degree of low level police harassment is evident in those countries.

§ Earl Russell
My Lords, is the Minister aware of this judgment on the Roma by President Meciar in 1993: It is necessary to curtail the extended reproduction of [this] socially unadaptable and mentally backward population"? Can the Minister imagine the effect of joining that attitude to a racial minority with freedom of movement within the EU? Does he agree that the effect of human rights abuses on movement of population is one reason why this Government's commitment to an ethical foreign policy is in our national interest?

§ Lord Whitty
My Lords, I agree completely with the final point made by the noble Earl. I am not familiar with the quotation to which he referred, but it reflects some of the attitudes of people within Slovakia and other eastern European countries towards their minorities. Such an attitude needs clearly to be eliminated from government and establishment thinking, and judicial and police operations, within those countries before we can conceivably allow them to enter the EU.

§ Lord Lester of Herne Hill
My Lords, I should declare an interest as a member of the board of the European Roma Rights Centre, whose headquarters are in Budapest. In view of the Minister's recognition that the Roma are a large ethnic group facing severe problems of racial discrimination, prejudice and harassment, will he ensure that accurate information is made available by the Home Office in asylum applications so that the special immigration adjudicators can have recent cogent evidence of the actual situation in the country from which the Roma are seeking asylum in this country?

§ Lord Whitty
My Lords, I hesitate to stray too far into the area of the Home Office.Clearly the asylum 459 applications of those Roma who have arrived in Dover and other places in this country will be dealt with in the normal way, on the basis of as much information as the Home Office and immigration officials can acquire.

The Lord Bishop of Southwell
My Lords, will the Minister indicate what monitoring there will be of the situation in those countries, and, in particular, the Czech and Slovak Republics, to ensure that there is a definite improvement in the protection of minority rights, and, especially, of the Roma people?

§ Lord Whitty
My Lords, in the approach to EU accession, the situation with regard to minorities and their civic rights will be a central part of the monitoring process to see whether they can meet the EU criteria. The criteria on civil rights and the protection of minorities are absolute criteria. There will be no transitional period. So accession to the EU would require them already to have vastly improved their treatment of minorities before we could conclude an accession treaty.

§ Lord Mackie of Benshie
My Lords, is the Minister aware that the Council of Europe has set up a monitoring committee to monitor those countries within the Council of Europe which have these problems?

§ Lord Whitty
My Lords, under the reinforced pre-accession strategy, there is an institutional form of monitoring those aspects set up by the Commission. That will form part of the report to the Council of Ministers at the various stages of the accession talks.

§ Baroness Williams of Crosby
My Lords, I thank the Minister once again for his helpful reply. Is he aware that, under the present Home Office procedures, most of the Roma who are currently trying to enter the country at Dover and other southern ports are subject to a fast track procedure of five working days? Under that procedure, most are returned almost immediately. Will he be kind enough to draw the attention of his colleagues in the Home Office to a situation where the genuine grounds of persecution sometimes do not have time to be considered seriously?

§ Lord Whitty
My Lords, I am sure that my colleagues in the Home Office are aware of those concerns. However, when we are faced with an arrival of substantial proportions, the facts have clearly to be established rapidly. That is what the Home Office has attempted to do.