ITALY: Recent anti-Romanian sentiment under discussion as Romanian PM visits Italy

The Romanian prime minister met his Italian counterpart in Rome, where the two discussed Italy's concerns about criminal elements amongst Romanians living in Italy. Romanian Prime Minister Calin Popescu Tariceanu met with Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi in Rome on Thursday (July 12) as the two countries work towards strengthening economic ties and shoring up problems with criminal elements within the Romanian community living in Italy. Italy has over 100,000 Romanian citizens living in the country with an estimated 1,000 Roma migrants arriving from Romania every month. Recently there has been an increase in anti-Romanian sentiment in the country after a spate of criminal offences involving Romanian citizens. "I am happy as during our discussions today it shows we are united in a common fight against the criminal world and we have an ever greater cooperation between our police forces," Prodi said at a news conference following their meeting. "We have Romanian police officers who have started working in Italy with the Italian police force and this will multiply and will certainly give us positive results," he added.. Currently about nine Romanian police officers are believed to be working in Italy in the capital Rome, as well as the northern cities of Turin and Milan. "What I would like to underline is that any Romanian citizen present in whatever EU country should be seen as all the other citizens and clearly have the same rights and mode of conduct as everyone else," Tariceanu said. Romania, a new EU member, has recently escaped suffering bureaucratic sanctions from Brussels but has been criticised for levels of lawlessness and corruption within the country.

ITN Source | July 13, 2007

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