Wherever they might be living throughout Europe, the Romanian citizens must know that their Government will never tolerate any abuse on their rights or the current European legislation. Therefore, we would like to express our utter opposition to an attitude that treats any Romanian as a virtual offender, such as was the case during the first episode of Channel 4’s documentary ‘The Romanians are Coming’. Many Romanians present on British soil work; they earn their wages and pay their taxes. Therefore, they must be respected accordingly.
The Romanians that work in the United Kingdom should know that they are respected by their national authorities and protected by European legislation. We know that living far away from their children and families makes their lives more difficult, so that the last thing that we are willing to accept is for them to be humiliated and worried by retrograde attitudes. However, the Romanian government also has its own zero tolerance policy towards those Romanians that break British law or try to obtain undue benefits.
We do hope that the British Cabinet, with whom we do have excellent relations, will further deepen and broaden its collaboration with the Romanian authorities, in this particular field, as well as in all matters related with the freedom of circulation and establishment, as stated and provided for in European and national law.
At the same time, the Romanian citizens that are part of the Roma community and honest-mindedly come to work in any EU member state are European citizens. As such they are entitled to the same rights as any other European citizen has. There are no first-rate European citizens and no second-hand European citizens.
Lord Beveridge famously wrote in his Report of 1942 on Social Insurance and Allied Services, which instrumentally helped to draw the lines of the Welfare State, that the Five Giant Evils blocking modern society’s road to prosperity are Squalor, Ignorance, Want, Idleness and Disease. Beveridge’s ideas were revolutionary for a time when Europe was divided by war and fear. They still are today, when the European Union became an institutional, political and social model for unity, mutual trust and social justice, which fully proved its ability to overcome crisis and provide a viable framework for peace, justice and individual success.
Let us not forget today, for the sake of circumstantial reasons, his generous message of hope and faith in a society of decent, open-minded and hard-working people, earning their wages, paying their taxes and building their future together, on a continent freed from Squalor, Ignorance, Want, Idleness and Disease.

Dr. Codrin Scutaru
Secretary of State (Deputy Minister of Labor)
Ministry of Labor, Family, Social Protection and Elderly
Government of Romania
VP of the Conservative Party (PC)