Loading ...Minister of Foreign Affairs Cristian Diaconescu will be in Rome on Monday afternoon where he will hold official talks with his Italian counterpart Franco Frattini on the bilateral relations, on the Romanian-Italian business environment and the problems of the Romanian citizens in the Italian Peninsula.
„I was invited by Mr Frattini on Monday, after the GAERC meeting in Brussels, to board together his plane, to go to Rome and hold a talk about all these aspects that have been quite obvious [accusations by some Italian officials that Romania „does not take its criminals home”], to appear before the press and I accepted,” said Minister Cristian Diaconescu last week.
The visit comes at a time when the relations between Romania and Italy are tense following some offences, among them being rapes and robberies, in which Romanian citizens or alleged Romanian immigrants were involved both as perpetrators and victims. Italian authorities and officials, the public opinion as well as the press in Italy took an increasingly aggressive discourse and attitude in the past few weeks to the Romanian communities as a whole, a fact that brought about the reaction of the Romanian authorities.
„Unfortunately, we are not at a time when we can say that things will change dramatically in Italy as there is a certain attitude of the political class, of the Government I myself cannot explain. I want to say very clearly that the incidents occurring all over Europe in connection with European citizens from various states are equally to be regretted and it is imperiously necessary for them to be sanctioned with a proportional punishment as justice decides.
But at the same time the attitudes, of the Government included, especially the attitudes of the authorities in Rome, seem to me quite regrettable, attitudes in which, by an extremely aggressive and extremely provocative rhetoric, they practically incite to xenophobia,” said Minister Cristian Diaconescu. Premier Boc said on Saturday that the Romanian authorities were concerned with the safety of the Romanian citizens in Italy.
„The Romanians in Italy, who are well-meaning people, do their business properly and must not suffer as there are persons who do not observe the criminal law,” said the Premier. He informed that he had empowered Minister Cristian Diaconescu, Dan Nica and Catalin Predoiu to talk with the Italian officials about the cases when the Romanian citizens were involved in crimes, trying to avoid the collective guilt.
„The Romanians must not suffer in Italy because there was an offender there. The offender, no matter who he might be, from any country, must be punished in keeping with the penal law and the other Romanians must benefit by protection and safety as this is the European Union,” said Premier Emil Boc.
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