Amnesty: Autoriteiten Bulgarije en Roemenië schenden mensenrechten gehandicapten en Roma-zigeuners (en)

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Just a week ahead of the Commission's progress report on Romanian and Bulgarian EU membership, Amnesty International has pointed to wide-spread police brutality, mistreatment of Roma populations and of the mentally ill in the two candidate states.

The briefing papers, released on Tuesday (19 October), reports on racially motivated violence against the Roma population in both countries, by skinhead groups and other individuals, but also by law enforcement authorities.

Furthermore, Amnesty says that mentally ill persons are not fully protected against physical and mental abuse, nor are they provided with "services in line with human rights".

In the case of Romania, Amnesty states that maltreatment of children by the police has not yet vanished despite earlier public reports.

Bulgaria gets criticised for not guaranteeing procedural rights, like speed, transparency and objectivity, in criminal proceedings.

"The EU must keep up the pressure on these countries", said Dick Oosting, Director of Amnesty's EU office.

He says that such pressure has also been useful in the case of Turkey and the new member states, which joined last year.

Amnesty's report for Bulgaria and Romania does however say that progress has been made in many areas, such as anti-discrimination legislation and health legislation, including treatment of the mentally ill - but there are breaches of these laws in practice.

Janina Arsenjeva, Amnesty International's researcher on Bulgaria, Romania and Slovakia, and author of the briefing paper, said that very often the problems are out of the authorities' control.

"The perpetrators are often individuals, or in the private sector. Discrimination of the Roma population, for example, is not only a matter of legislation, it is a matter of mentality change", she explained.

According to the commission, both Bucharest and Sofia satisfy the Copenhagen political criteria for EU accession, requiring "stability of institutions guaranteeing democracy, rule of law and respect for and protection of minorities".

But while the accession treaties have been signed, it is still not a guarantee that both countries will join the EU in 2007, as promised.

If either country fails to meet the agreed criteria, their accession could be postponed until 2008.

Mr Oosting also points out that once countries become member states, EU pressure for better human rights falls away.

"Every time we want to cast a light on abuse that happens inside the EU, like lately in the case of the refugee camp Lampedusa in Italy, the Commission says it is under the member states responsibility alone. But the EU should pay the same attention to violations of human rights within its borders as outside".