Sofia mayor Boiko Borissov did not welcome the letter from a group of members of the European Parliament that changed the outcome of the saga of the Vuzrazhdane area of the capital city.

The demolition of illegal structures in the area was meant to go ahead by June 30.

About 200 Roma people were to be removed from the area when the demolition went ahead. The demolition had the approval of the Supreme Administrative Court, given in September last year. Were the demolition to have gone ahead, it would not have been the first such action. Recently, there have been a series of demolitions of and removals from such illegal settlements.

The MEPs’ letter resulted in Borissov having meetings with Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev and Labour and Social Policy Minister Emilia Maslarova. The outcome was an agreement to hold off the demolition, and for the Government to provide 300 000 leva for temporary housing for Roma residents who had been in the area before 1996.

The meeting with Stanishev was one of the demands put in the MEPs’ letter.

Borissov said that, were it not for the letter, he would have implemented the demolition in the light of the Supreme Administrative Court decision.

He complained that the tone of the letter was “dictatorial”.

Before the letter, Sofia’s chief architect had already prepared a plan for an alternative site for the illegal residents of Vuzrazhdane.

He said that there were 27 000 citizens in need of accommodation, and currently only 122 homes were ready.

Borissov hit back sharply at the letter.

“The greater part of the MEPs’ letter sent to Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev was written by people in Bulgaria or Sofia because it refers to the ‘anti-Roma behaviour’ of the Sofia mayor. I have done a lot for the Roma people and their organisations recognise this,” Borissov said.

He said that the municipality would approach the European Parliament to inquire into the “legitimacy” of the letter. Borissov said he wanted to know whether the letter was official and represented the position of the institution.

The municipality would also ask the Government how the letter related to Bulgarian law, given that a legal procedure was in place and that there was a court order to be implemented.

Referring to the fact that the letter had been addressed to Stanishev, Borissov said: “I would not have taken this letter into consideration had it been addressed to me”.

Borissov had support from at least one quarter. The Evroroma party, one of the large number of Roma-based political organisations, issued a statement saying that they disagreed with allegations that Borissov was an enemy of the Roma.