France has expelled more than 1,000 Roma since early August in a new crackdown The European Commission is considering whether to drop its threat of legal action against France after Paris responded to its concerns about expulsions of Roma (Gypsies).
France told the Commission on Friday that it would change its laws on freedom of movement, in line with a 2004 EU directive.
Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding had demanded proof that France was not targeting Roma as an ethnic group.
France may now avoid an EU court case.
On Friday, French foreign ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said Paris was “willing to insert certain provisions of the directive into the texts of its national law”.
Friday was the deadline set by Ms Reding for France to submit plans to the Commission spelling out how it would implement the 2004 directive on the right of EU citizens and their families to move and reside freely in other EU member states.
“The examination of the French response is over and Ms Reding has reached the conclusion that it met the demands of the European Commission,” said an unnamed EU official quoted by the French news agency AFP.
Ms Reding’s spokesman Matthew Newman told the BBC that the Commission was studying the French response on Tuesday. But he did not confirm that the threat of legal action would be lifted.
Paris has been widely condemned for expelling more than 1,000 Romanian and Bulgarian Roma living in illegal camps, in police raids that Ms Reding compared with events in World War II.
Ms Reding has accused France of violating the rules set out in the directive, which include protection from discrimination.
President Nicolas Sarkozy says France has the right to expel foreign Roma who are jobless and lacking the means to support themselves. He has also called the camps breeding grounds for prostitution, people trafficking and child exploitation.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.