WRITTEN QUESTION E-2305/01 by Erik Meijer (GUE/NGL) to the Commission. Ending of police violence, intimidation and ethnic hatred in the applicant countries before accession to the EU.
Date: 2001-07-31
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: EU programme, Slovakia, accession to the European Union, arrest, ethnic group, human rights, judicial inquiry, police, racial discrimination, rule of law, violence, vocational training

6.6.2002

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 134 E/23

How quickly could alternatives such as those described in paragraphs 4 and 5 above be submitted to
6.
the European Parliament and the parliaments of the applicant countries in the event of the accession of
new member countries failing?

Answer given by Mr Verheugen on behalf of the Commission

(17 October 2001)

1., 2. and 3.
The Commission would remind the Honourable Member ’ as stated in its ‘Strategy Paper
2000’ presented to Parliament and the Council in November 2000 along with the Regular Reports on the
candidate countries’ progress towards accession ’ that it considers that ‘stable democracies have emerged
in Central and Eastern Europe and systemically they are already so robust that there need be no risk of a
relapse into authoritarianism’. Political stability in the candidate countries is rooted in common European
values, to wit democracy, the rule of law, respect for human rights and protection of minorities, values
that are reflected in the accession criteria laid down by the Copenhagen European Council of 21 and
22 June 1993 and subsequently written into the Treaty of Amsterdam.

The political stability is attributable to the candidate countries’ citizens and is buoyed up by the
enlargement process, which in itself constitutes the best way of securing that stability in the future.

The fact that there are in the candidate countries nationalist forces pursuing the objectives described by the
Honourable Member is merely democracy at work. The Commission would point out that an enlargement
process in tune with the basic principles of European integration in no way threatens the national identity
of the new members.

The Commission feels that everything must be done to ensure that the citizens of the Member States and
the candidate countries are properly informed on the scope and consequences of enlargement. With that in
mind it has adopted a communication strategy that it is busy implementing.

4., 5. and 6.
The Commission believes the enlargement process should continue to be implemented in
the existing framework, namely the pre-accession strategy and the accession negotiations. Alternative
solutions are not envisaged. The Community and the Member States have already concluded wide-ranging
association agreements with the candidate countries and issues relating to the Cohesion Fund and the sale
of land fall within the scope of the negotiations.

(2002/C 134 E/023)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2305/01

by Erik Meijer (GUE/NGL) to the Commission

(31 July 2001)

Subject: Ending of police violence,
accession to the EU

intimidation and ethnic hatred in the applicant countries before

1.

Can the Commission confirm the Amnesty International report of 11 July 2001 that:

(a) on 5 July 2001 at Magnezitovce in the Slovak Republic, Karol Sendrei of the Romani community and
his two sons Robert and Peter were arrested following a complaint by one of the sons about
ill-treatment suffered at the hands of the son of the mayor and that the three detainees were beaten, as
was Karol Sendrei’s wife;

(b)

the three detainees were then examined by a doctor at the hospital in Revùca, who found that they
had not suffered any serious damage to their health, after which they were taken to the police station
where they were tied to a radiator and beaten again;

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Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

6.6.2002

(c) Robert Sendrei had a gun put to his head but was then told it would be a waste of a bullet;

(d) Karol Sendrei died while being ill-treated on 6 July?

Does the Commission agree with Amnesty International that events such as those described in
in which the police intimidate and abuse members of the Romani community, occur

2.
paragraph 1,
frequently in Slovakia?

Does the Commission share my view that in the Member States of the EU, of human rights should

3.
mean that:

(a)

everyone is equal before the public authorities and the law;

(b)

the police are not authorised to take revenge for a complaint against those holding public office or
members of their families;

(c) police investigations must not involve ill-treatment and death threats against detainees;

How does the Commission intend to ensure that practices of this kind become a thing of the past in

4.
the applicant countries before they are eligible for membership of the European Union?

Answer given by Mr Verheugen on behalf of the Commission

(25 October 2001)

The Commission has received the same information as stated in the Amnesty International report of
11 July 2001. It cannot, however, confirm the concrete course of events as investigations are still ongoing
and no official report has yet been released by the Slovak authorities.

The Commission can confirm and notes with great concern that Roma continue to be threatened by
violence notably at the hands of ‘skinheads’ and suffer from lack of sufficient police protection. The death
of Karol Sendrei highlights that Roma also appear to be exposed to ill-treatment by the police themselves.
While it is very difficult to obtain precise statistics on this issue, it appears that police misconduct against
the Roma remains a persistent problem (1).

Should the allegations prove to be true this case would underline in a very tragic way that despite some
good policy formulation about how to improve the situation of the Roma minority in Slovakia, there
remains a huge gap when it comes to translating these concepts into practice. The ill-treatment of citizens
by policemen can in no way be justified and constitutes a serious disrespect and infringement of human
rights as they are valid and applicable in the Member States.

The Commission, in the framework of the PHARE programme, has already supported a number of projects
in the past, aimed at promoting tolerance amongst the Slovak Roma and non-Roma population, including
the police forces.
In 1999, for instance, PHARE allocated approximately € 0,5 million for activities
focusing on the training of local authorities and carrying out a public information campaign in this field. A
1998 and 1999 project with an overall PHARE allocation of € 7 million supported, inter alia, training
activities for police forces with a particular emphasis on respecting the rule of law. In the light of repeated
reports of police misconduct against the Roma, the Commission is considering introducing a new priority
in the 2001 Accession Partnership, calling for an effective system for redressing police misconduct. This
document is currently under discussion with the Slovak authorities and will be published presumably
before the end of this year. Finally, the Commission monitors the developments in this area very closely,
amongst others in its Regular Reports, the next edition of which will appear in November 2001.

(1) The latest report of the Control and Inspection Service of the Slovak Ministry of Interior recorded around 4 000
complaints against law enforcement bodies, in general. 522 of these complaints were found to be justified, amongst
them 123 cases of physical coercion and 52 cases of unreasonable use of coercive methods. The figures did not
indicate whether the victims belonged to a specific ethnic group. In its Concluding Observations of 11 May 2001,
the United Nations’ Committee against Torture expressed concern about allegations of police participation in attacks
on Roma and about allegations that
law enforcement officials have ill-treated detainees in police custody,
particularly in lock-ups and police cells.