Dispute grows over France's removal of Roma camps

When the laws on free movement were conceived, "it was assumed that this would be about highly qualified, multi-lingual, economically mobile work force moving across borders — not about Roma," said Hugo Brady, senior research fellow at the Centre for European Reform. It is tempting for politicians like Mr Sarkozy, whose fortunes are flagging, to play the immigrant card, but that also risks raising public passions, Mr Brady said, possibly undercutting support for European institutions among a public that is already skeptical about integration. "Nobody will thank the EU for upholding its one real citizen-friendly right of free movement ... Immigration has stepped into the post-Lehman Brothers world and the EU is probably seen by ordinary people as more part of the problem than the solution."