Roma in Romania and Bulgaria: despised and stigmatised

Romania and Bulgaria, the two most recent newcomers into the EU, have been accused by Western governments, especially by France, of not doing enough for the integration of their Roma population.

The two countries, while not contesting the size of the problem, have in turn underlined the need for a common EU Roma policy. For the time being, there is no such policy at the European level, and the magnitude of the Roma problem was not foreseen by the European institutions when the decision...