EP scolds Czechs over pig farm

The European Parliament has criticised the Czech Republic over a pig farm in south Bohemia, which stands on the site of a former wartime internment camp for Romanies or Roma as they commonly known.

A Romany resolution was passed by the parliament calling on the European Commission and other authorities to remove the pig farm in Lety u Pisku and to erect a dignified monument to the Romany victims.

Hundreds of Roma, mainly children, died from disease, hunger or abuse in the camp during the German occupation. The pig farm was built in the 1970s.

The controversy over the stench of the pig farm built above the mass graves of the concentration camp has made its way to Strasbourg.

The resolution annoyed certain Czech MEPs, mainly those from the senior ruling Civic Democratic Party (ODS), who voted against it.

"The approach to the Romany minority is in fact a complex and pan-European problem that concerns almost all EU countries," ODS MEP Jan Zahradil said.

Jan Brezina, MEP from the Czech junior ruling Christian Democratic Union (KDU-CSL), expressed a similar opinion.

"If the EU wants to interfere in this issue, which is under sovereign jurisdiction of Czech bodies, it should simultaneously provide the two billion crowns (€77m) that are necessary for the pig farm to be pulled down and for a monument to be built," he said.

Romanies have been striving for the pig farm's closure for a long time, but as yet to no avail.

For the latest pig news, subscribe here

Editor PigProgress