| towards a better Europe |
Compelling evidence of European Commission fraud
The European Committee on Romani Emancipation (ECRE) has received a reply, in the form of an opinion from the European Human Rights Tribunal (EHRT) 1 in response to a request made some months ago. This contains an analysis by an EHRT panel of the written record of the European commission and parliament on the emerging scandal of educational denial of children in Central Europe. It contains compelling evidence that Enlargement has knowingly misrepresented the facts.
The EHRT is an independent tribunal organized on a case by case basis and involving independent professional counsel and advisers. The EHRT is one of the few tribunals in Europe which includes juries and its main approach is to act in line with the law of tort. Tort law accepts than in following legal procedures individual decisions taken on behalf of institutions can harm others. Tort law sets out to compensate those harmed. The other characteristic of the EHRT is that it is strictly concerned with the individual responsibility of decision makers rather than "institutions". In other words, management and staff can not hide behind institutional or corporate veils.
In basic terms the governments of the Czech republic, Hungary and Slovakia are running criminal enterprises which have remained unreported by the European commission. In their investigation of the record, the EHRT concludes that the record seems to indicate that Enlargement is guilty of fraud in its reporting and specifically in its consultations with the parliament. We reproduce some excerpts below which support this contention.
The EHRT Opinion includes the following:
| "The form of expression and content of the reports of the European Commission directorate for enlargement, as well as the opinions derived from them by the reporting by the European parliament, on the situation with respect to education for the Roma in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia are nothing more than a misrepresentation of the facts." |
To justify this opinion EHRT set out the facts and then present below the facts as presented by the European Parliament and the European Commission directorate for enlargement.
In their facts they present the following resume:
|
"1. In 1989, the governments of the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia initiated a program of proactive segregation and educational denial aimed at Roma children living in rural areas. 2. Between 1989 and 2003 the governments of the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia paid over Euro 2 billion to force Roma children into a status of segregation and educational denial. 3. This was achieved by only transferring normative funding to rural local authorities if they separated Roma children into so-called special schools. This was therefore, not just an incentive but was a condition of funding (a criterion) specifically designed to harm the Roma. This funding structure is still in operation. 4. The value of the incentive is some Euro 1,800/child/year. This year alone (2003) these governments invested some Euro 270 million in this process. 5. In all of these countries Roma children are "classified" as qualifying for educational denial by government "educational psychologists". Many school staff admit that the numbers required are established by the number of Roma children in villages reaching school entry age and the quantity of normative funding the local authority is trying to obtain from the central government. These figures are supplied to the psychologists when they arrive in a school district and they complete their "selection" process to satisfy this "demand". 6. This process of "selection" is therefore completely fraudulent. 7. Central government, that is ministries of finance and of education are fully aware of this process and still (2003) only supply such normative finance on the condition that this elaborate process is completed and the effective educational exclusion of the Roma achieved "at the local level". 8. To speak more plainly the release of normative funding by central government is conditional on a combination of professional fraud (the selection process) and a criminal act that of segregation and educational denial; this is an entirely corrupt process. 9. It is only on the basis that local authorities undertake these criminal acts, that normative funds are advanced by these central governments. 10. The impact of this system has been remarkable. Between 1989 and 2003 the number of normal Roma children in this status of 100% segregated educational denial increased from around 30,000 to 150,000, a five-fold increase. 11. During the last four years, while these governments were in active negotiations on "accession" with the European Commission, the numbers of children forced into this status increased from around 75,000 to 150,000; a doubling of the numbers exposed to this extreme prejudice. 12. This whole system is an exclusive government operation involving ministers, state secretaries and staff in ministries of finance, education, local government and educational authorities. The annual allocations are voted on by parliamentary committees more or less unanimously. |
So as to compare these facts on the ground, the EHRT have reviewed the contents so-called Fact Sheets prepared by the European parliament in January 2003 prior to their accession vote. These Fact Sheets were drawn up by the European parliament as a result of consultation with and references to European Commission directorate of Enlargement reports. For example in the case of the Czech Republic, under Chapter 18 of the Accession Reports, Education & Training the position of the parliament is stated to be as follows:
| In its resolution of 13 June 20022, Parliament welcomes the considerable efforts of the Government to improve the situation of the Roma; supports the Government in continuing the implementation of its Roma strategy in stronger consultation and partnership with the population concerned, especially with regard to improving the situation in housing, education and employment. |
The latest assessment by the Commission is reported to be that:
| "In its 1997 Opinion, the Commission concluded that no major problems were expected in the perspective of accession, in the field of education and training; the Commission expected the Czech higher education and vocational training system to meet the Community standards in the medium. The Commission also underlined that the participation of the Czech Republic in Community programmes would have positive effects and represented a good preparation for integration. Since the 1997 Opinion, the Czech Republic has made steady progress over the years, in particular as regards participation in Community programmes. Overall, the Czech Republic has achieved a good level of alignment and administrative capacity is satisfactory. The Czech Republic is generally meeting the commitments it has made in the accession negotiations in this field. |
It will be noted that the Commission "statements" contain no direct reference to school education as such but rather speak in somewhat glowing terms of everything else. This is a case of misrepresentation by omission.
This pattern is repeated in the other country reports but even the word "education" disappears from the citations of the commission reports.
For Hungary the position of the European parliament was:
| " In its resolution of 5 September 2001, Parliament draws attention to the fact that the medium term plan adopted by the Hungarian Government to promote the integration of the Roma minority in Hungarian society must be backed by practical and immediate support measures in the fields of education, employment and housing, inter alia, some of which are already under way, and which must be coordinated with the representatives of the Roma community and monitored jointly with them; believes that discrimination against Roma is largely due to existing prejudices and attitudes and that it can only be eliminated through information and education." |
In a similar pattern to the case of the Czech republic, the European commission assessment avoids direct reference to school level education, indeed, the word education is not mentioned at all. It reads as follows:
| In its 1997 Opinion, the Commission concluded that, in the perspective of accession, no major problems were expected in this field for Hungary. Since the Opinion, Hungary has achieved steady progress, including with regard to its participation in relevant Community programmes. Hungary's preparations for accession are now at an advanced level. Hungary is generally meeting the commitments it has made in the accession negotiations in this domain.In order to complete preparations for membership. Hungary's efforts now need to focus on further developing its administrative capacity in this domain. |
This mind-boggling white-wash might be taken to be an oversight if the omission of reference to school level education or even the word education only related to one country. But this pattern is repeated in the case of Slovakia where the position of the parliament is described as follows:
" In its resolution of 13 June 2002, Parliament:
|
The Commission assessment is reported to be:
| "In its 1997 Opinion, the Commission concluded that, in the perspective of accession, no major problems should be expected in these fields. Since the Opinion, Slovakia has achieved steady progress, including its participation in relevant Community programmes. Legislative alignment has been progressing well, especially during the past year. Overall, Slovakia's legislation is in line with the acquis in this area. Slovakia is generally meeting the commitments it has made in the accession negotiations in this domain. In order to complete preparations for membership, Slovakia's efforts now need to focus on developing a balanced and realistic implementation strategy and ensuring the necessary financial means. Adequate administrative capacity should be ensured, as well as due coordination between all the bodies involved. |
So as far as the parliament and the Commission are concerned, everything on the basic educational front is just fine.
The EHRT point out that the yawning gap between the facts on the ground and what is reported by the Parliament and the Commission is too big to be simply a case of incompetence or ignorance on the part of Enlargement. It says that the European Commission has maintained delegations in the countries concerned during the majority of the period described, has spent over Euro 12 billion in Phare funding and has worked for 4 years in negotiations with these countries supposedly analysing the state of affairs in the educational sector. This concentration of presence plus a fully staffed directorate makes it inconceivable that the Commission staff were so "unaware" of the facts that they ended up with the weak and tendentious reporting on record. Indeed the selective ommission of the more important fundamental is too repetitive to be other than intentional.
Further the Opinion states that,
| "Given the context of the theme under consideration, the situation of the Roma, one is drawn strongly to the conclusion that the written records of the enlargement directorate on this matter are discriminatory. It is notable that whereas the directorate for enlargement does mention discrimination in education and even mention the special schools in report content not cited by the parliament, they have at all times scrupulously avoided any mention of the criminal activities proactively encouraged by these governments. They never mention this proactive funding by government. Indeed, they do not mention explicitly that government is involved in any way. Enlargement steers away from considering this to be some form of corruption. It is to be noted that under separate chapters on corruption they provide these same governments with a clean bill of health. The commission reports completely fail to mention the massive volume of funding involved to enforce segregation and educational denial on Roma children. After some 14 years presence in these countries, the European commission has never bothered to estimate the numbers of children suffering under this regime. It is therefore apparent that the most important issue pertaining to the suitability of these countries for accession, that is governance and the behaviour of governments, are the very issues the commission does not commit to record in an accurate and transparent fashion. It is to stretch the bounds of credibility beyond all reasonable limits to put this down to an oversight on the part of the staff of the directorate of enlargement who, across the board, prepared similarly white-washed opinions on each country. The Commission reporting on this matter has not been transparent and has been intentionally omissive of the most important and damning content. Unfortunately it presents a self-evident situation making up a more than a prima facie case of fraud on the part of the European commission." |
The report then goes on to name the Commissioner concerned, the director-general responsible, who has since moved to external relations and several members of staff directly responsible for the preparation of the Commission reports. The EHRT has prepared a detailed analysis and justification for proceeding with individual cases of maladministration involving deficient professional and unethical conduct. Unethical from the standpoint of misrepresenting a situation, largely through intentional ommission, so as not to call attention to, and therefore helping perpetuate an unacceptable situation of extreme prejudice to which small children are being subjected. The perpetrators being the governments and civil servants in the countries concerned, governments who have been jointly approved by these same individuals at the Commission as having satisfied all requiremnts for accession.
1. The European Human Rights Tribunal http://www.ehrt.org