Romania's National Council for Combating Discrimination (NCCD) has found the country's Foreign Minister Teodor Baconschi guilty of discrimination, in the context of his statement about Roma crime.

The NCCD has issued a warning to Baconschi, Romanian news agency Mediafax reported citing sources from the institution.

"We analyzed a complaint relating to allegations about Mr. Baconschi Roma and crime and we concluded that this represents an act of discrimination," said the sources cited.

Baconschi has received a warning meaning that if he commits the same violation, he will be "considered a recidivist and shall be fined, but we hope not to get there," said the Romanian NCCD source.

Romania's Foreign Minister can appeal the ruling of the anti-discrimination body in court.

Several dozen non-governmental organizations called for the resignation or dismissal of Foreign Minister Baconschi, declaring their representatives are unhappy with a fragment of his speech seen as "racist", about which they complained to NCCD.

Baconschi's sanctions referred to a statement during a meeting with French State Secretary for European Affairs, Pierre Lellouche, on February 11, 2010, also found in a Government press release, the same day.

Talking about the Romanian community in France, according to a press statement on the ministry's website, Baconschi said:

"We have some physiological problems, natural breast crime in some of the Romanian communities, especially among Romanian citizens of Roma communities."

Critics have complained that the Minister associated the Roma ethnicity with crime in a way reminiscent to Nazi theories.

In response, Baconschi said his beliefs has nothing to do with racism; he said he sought to explain that the community of Romanian citizens of the Roma ethnicity in France had a greater crime rate than that of other immigrant communities such as the Moroccan community there.

The majority of the ethnic Roma that France expelled in a highly contraversial securty campaign over the summer were Romanians citizens, while a smaller portions were Bulgarian citizens. The Roma issue strained the relations between Bucharest and Paris despite their traditional partnership, and appears to have led France to indicate that it might block the Schengen Agreement accession of Bulgaria and Romania in March 2011.

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