Discrimination complaints and alerts in 2007 have doubled compared to 2006.

Two-thirds of Bulgarians felt discriminated in some way, even though half of the complaints filed with the anti-discrimination committee proved groundless, Kemal Eyup, chairman of the committee said on December 11 at a forum in Sofia, marking the end of the European Year of equal opportunities for all.

Bulgarian society needed to shed its prejudices against people of different sexuality and people with disabilities, Bulgarian news agency BTA quoted Eyup as saying.

Yuliana Nikolova, director of the European Institute said that only three per cent of Bulgarians would readily accept people from a different culture, against 23 per cent in the EU.

Nikolova said that, according to Eurobarometer findings, 27 per cent of Bulgarians did not believe in multicultural dialogue.