Romanian Youth Voice

The Romanian MEP Sebastian Bodu asked the European Parliament for the replacement of the term "Roma" with "Gypsy"

The Romanian MEP Sebastian Bodu, of the ruling PDL party (affiliated to the Christian Democrat European People's Party), drafted a resolution asking for the replacement of the term "Roma" with "Gypsy".

The motion, brought before the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs in the European Parliament, which will have to decide whether to support and propose it in the plenary, argues "that the term 'roma' generates confusion with both the term Romanian (inhabitants of Romania) and the term 'Roma" (capital city of Italy).' Such confusion, continues the resolution "may generate undesirable consequences both for the inhabitants of Romania and the inhabitants of Rome, regarding their perception among the citizens of the member states and beyond."

The confusion also arises officially. On 22 September an EU Commission spokesman confused the Romany language with the Romanian language in a press conference, insisting that Romany (how the language of the Gypsies is called in English) was "an official language of the EU."

Mr Bodu acknowledged that the episode was one of the factors which determined him to draft the motion, together with the long-lasting hostility towards Romanians in countries like Italy: "I was there one and a half years ago, when they created those Civil Guards to combat Gypsy criminality, and I saw how because of the confusion between Roma and Romanian they started hating a whole nation of 22 million."

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18.11.2010. 10:55

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