ERRC and its Partners sent a letter of concern on behalf of the proposed use of EU-funds for a segregated camp in Naples, Italy
28 November 2014
Budapest, Naples, 28 November 2014: On 21 November, the European Roma Rights Centre and its partners, Associazione 21 Luglio and OsservAzione, sent a letter to the Municipality of Naples to express their concern regarding plans to evict the Romani community in Cupa Perillo and to re-locate approximately half of the evictees to a yet-to-be-built segregated camp. The organisations underlined that this policy will only serve persisting segregation rather than full integration which violates the national legal framework as well as EU requirements.
As announced by Roberta Gaeta, town councillor for social policies, at a public meeting on 21 November, the municipality of Naples plans to evict existing informal Roma settlement in Cupa Perillo. The municipality intended first to spend approximately €7 million from European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) to build another segregated camp in the area where almost half of the population from the current settlement will be placed though this would have been against national and international legal obligations. The local authorities failed to clarify what would happen with the other 400 Roma after the planned eviction of their current camp.
The undersigned organisations wrote to the European Commission to inform the planned eviction and the building of another segregated camp from EU funds. In its response, the European Commission made it clear that “the project [...] would not seem in line with the objectives of the ERDF”, and thus opposes the planned use of the funds in this form.
Therefore, the organisations urge the municipality of Naples to adhere to the requirements set by the EU and the national legal framework and call on the authorities to provide affordable housing to all 800 Roma in an integrated environment, and additionally, to support the housing programmes with adopting integrating measures in the fields of employment or access to education and health.
This press release is also available in Italian
The letter of concern is available in English and in Italian .
