A 31-year old Romanian was shot dead near Napoli, the CasertaNews.it website reported on Sunday. Another Romanian was found dead in an improvised barrack in Milano, Corrierre Dela Sera read on Saturday night.

The two killings have yet to be investigated and local police argue that they do not exclude any lead.

Meanwhile EC President Jose Manuel Barroso told Italian daily La Repubblica this weekend that Italy has never demanded European funds for programs aiming the integration of the Rroma (Gypsy) community, which was considerably boosted over the past several years with the coming of many Rroma people from Romania and other countries.

He criticized the permissive attitude of the Italian authorities regarding the slums at the periphery of big cities.

Barroso’s statement comes after Italian PM Romano Prodi and his Romanian counterpart Calin Popescu Tariceanu sent an open letter to the European Commission urging for more European policies to socially integrate the Rroma people.

Barroso declared that the European Social Fund already allocated some 275 million euro for programs targeting the Rroma people. However, he declared that Italy never received any of those money because the Italian authorities did not request it.

Barroso reiterated that the European Union was ready to help countries but stated clearly that this was not the responsibility of the EU and that local and regional authorities had to assume their problems.