French 'anti-Gypsy policy' denounced by European parliament

Liberal resolution with 337 majority rebukes Nicolas Sarkozy for deporting Roma and destroying their camps

Nicolas Sarkozy has been accused by the European parliament of stirring up racism through his anti-Gypsy campaign in a highly unusual vote against a leading EU country that has humiliated the centre-right dominating the politics of Europe.

A parliament resolution denouncing the French government's policy of deporting Roma families and demolishing their encampments was carried by a much bigger majority than expected – a vote of 337 to 245, bringing an uncommon victory for the centre-left and liberals in a chamber dominated by conservatives.

The resolution carried by the parliament also strongly criticised the European commission, which polices observance of European law, for appeasing the French and "failing to do its job".

The motion was proposed by social democrats, liberals, Greens and the hard left, and demanded an instant halt to the expulsions in France.

An opposing resolution from the centre-right European People's party, grouping Christian democrats and conservatives including Sarkozy's UMP, failed to criticise the French policy and was defeated.

Eric Besson, the French immigration minister, who was in Romania today pressing Bucharest to do more to integrate its large Roma/Gypsy minority, dismissed the parliament's attack. Paris would not bow to its "political diktat", he announced. "France has taken no specific measures against the Roma," he said.

Last month French police expelled 977 Roma, mostly to Romania, and demolished 128 camps, according to official French figures. The Gypsies from Romania are EU citizens and enjoy the right of freedom of movement in the union.

The French policy's contradictions were highlighted by the case of three Roma from Romania expelled from northern France. They received a deportation order, crossed the border into Belgium, walked a few metres, then turned around and legally walked back into France under the watching eyes of a French official.

"This is to demonstrate the absurdity of French government policy on the Roma," said their lawyers, Clément Norbert and Antoine Berthe.

The European parliament resolution is non-binding, purely a verbal rebuke. But it represents a big blow to French prestige, not least because the parliament sits in France, in Strasbourg. It is rare for the parliament to single out a big founding member of the EU for such a reprimand.

The result of the vote was also a fiasco for the centre-right EPP, the strongest caucus in the parliament representing Angela Merkel's Christian democrats from Germany, Silvio Berlusconi's deputies from Italy and Sarkozy's own UMP MEPs.

The voting figures indicated that many conservatives are deeply uneasy about the French policies, which have also split the Sarkozy cabinet and been denounced by the UN and the Vatican and the United Nations.

The parliament said it was "deeply concerned at the inflammatory and openly discriminatory rhetoric that has characterised political discourse during the repatriations of Roma, lending credibility to racist statements and the actions of extreme rightwing groups".

It accused the European commission of doing too little too late in considering whether France was breaking EU freedom of movement laws and anti-discrimination rules. "This places the commission under renewed pressure to begin legal action against the French authorities for failing to respect the rule of law in the way it has been targeting the Roma as an ethnic group," said Claude Moraes, the Labour MEP who helped draft the resolution.

In Paris on Monday, the European commission chief, José Manuel Barroso, and Sarkozy reached a truce on the Roma row, agreeing to play the matter down. "I've avoided entering the debate about France because it is not my role," Barroso said. "The subject is extremely politicised." He added, in reference to Jean-Marie Le Pen's far-right National Front party: "It's a mistake to say that freedom of movement must be absolute. Doing that, you'll create plenty of Le Pens."