Brussels Must Investigate the Creation of a New EU-funded Romani ghetto in Calabria
25 October 2024
In an open letter to the European Commission, the ERRC together with Italian rights groups and nine MEPs have called for an urgent investigation into the misuse of EU funds by the regional government of Calabria to racially segregate hundreds of Roma.
Approximately €36 million of EU funding will be spent to demolish and evict Roma from an existing segregated camp and rehouse them in newly constructed dwelling units in the exact same location. The ERRC, Lav Romanò, Un Mondo di Mondi, and the activist Gabriella De Luca denounced this creation of a new EU-funded ghetto.
The Scordovillo camp, located in the city of Lamezia Terme in the province of Catanzaro in the southern region of Calabria, has existed for about 40 years. Approximately 440 Italian Roma, including more than 280 minors live there. The camp is located near the Giovanni Paolo II hospital and adjacent to a large illegal landfill. Sanitary conditions in the camp are appalling.
In March 2024, a resolution was adopted by the regional authorities to address the privations faced by those Roma living in the Scordovillo camp, through an ‘integrated and innovative approach’ that would combine environmental and housing infrastructure interventions, as well as measures to promote education and social inclusion. In reality this means demolition of the camp, relocation of the families, followed by a spend of €28 million to build 120 new housing units on the site of the old camp.
EU resolutions and conclusions on spatial segregation
The use of EU funds to create a ‘new and improved’ segregated camp on the exact location of the existing Scordovillo camp is diametrically opposed to the EU Roma strategic framework and the 2023 Council conclusions, which call for funds to be used for the “eradication of housing segregation that stems from discrimination.”
In its October 2022 resolution, the European Parliament (EP) described the situation in spatially segregated Romani settlements as alarming, where conditions violate human and fundamental rights as enshrined in the EU Treaties and other international conventions, called for priority “to be given to desegregation approaches, utilising or investing in integrated social housing.”
In light of previous failures to take effective action, the Parliament called on the Commission to act more robustly as guardian of the Treaties to prevent further violations of human rights “starting with effective prevention of the use of EU funds for supporting discriminatory practices in the Member States.”
The resolution also called on the Commission to establish an early warning mechanism for reporting risks of abuse or misuse of EU funds earmarked for addressing the situation of Romani people in marginalised living places.
Call for action to prevent the use of EU funds for discriminatory practices
With these resolutions in mind, and cognizant of the Commission’s long-standing reticence to take issue with Italy over issues concerning the rule of law and abuses of fundamental rights, rights groups are extremely perturbed that, in this case, the use of EU funds for the proposed interventions at the Scordovillo camp will proceed without prior scrutiny.
The ERRC and other signatories of the letter to the European Commission have called on Brussels to investigate this case, and to ensure that EU funds are not used to construct a segregated Romani ghetto on the site of a demolished camp; and for the Commission to act more robustly to prevent further violations of human rights, and the abuse of EU funds for supporting discriminatory practices.
The rights groups and MEPs strongly urge the Commission to start with this particular case, and as a matter of urgency, to investigate and ultimately to block the project as approved by the regional government of Calabria, which they maintain will not deliver an ‘integrated and innovative approach to social inclusion’, but rather serve only to entrench the spatial segregation and exclusion of Roma.
The full text of the open letter sent to the European Commission is available here.
