One of the issues that has long since characterised political life within the Roma community in Bulgaria is a lack of unity.

A wide variety of organisations, some extremely small-scale, claim to represent the Roma. Observers have said that this plethora of organisations may be linked to the continued clan tradition within the community.

Euroroma is perhaps the best-known Roma political organisation, gearing up its activities around election time. However, through most of Bulgaria’s post-communist political history, electoral turnout in Roma areas has been low, with few exceptions - in 2001, there appears to have been a higher-than-usual turnout in the parliamentary elections with Roma voters being attracted by Simeon Saxe-Coburg, and in 2005, Boiko Borissov appears to have the mayoral candidate of choice among the Roma.

In June 2006, the latest “unity” organisation appeared, when seven Roma organisations established the ROMA Alliance for Change and Roma Unity (ACRU).

ROMA ACRU Chairman Vassil Chaprazov told journalists that the organisation’s main goal would be to improve the situation of the Roma prior to Bulgaria’s accession to the European Union.

“We want to urge the institutions to undertake efficient actions towards Roma integration and for permanent monitoring. We will assess the Government’s policies to this end and, particularly, the distribution of money intended for Roma within European funds. ROMA ACRU will also be a partner of the government under the Decade of Roma Inclusion 2005-2015 initiative,” said Chaprazov.

He listed unemployment, poor living conditions and low levels of education and healthcare as the most serious problems facing the Roma.

The new formation will insist on involvement in the drafting of Roma integration programmes.

Members of the new alliance include Resource Centre SHAM Foundation - Montana, United Roma Union - Sofia, Amalipe Centre for Inter-ethnic Dialogue and Tolerance - Veliko Turnovo, Roma Youth Organisation - Sliven, Roma - Plovdiv Foundation for Regional Development, DROM Organisation - Vidin, among others.

In February this year, Bulgarian news agency BTA reported Roma Party chairperson Toma Tomov, an MP for the Bulgarian Socialist Party-dominated Coalition for Bulgaria, as saying more than 200 million euro for Roma integration had passed through the National Council on Ethnic and Demographic Issues (NCEDI) over the past five years and was unaccounted for.

Addressing a BSP Supreme Council meeting, Tomov said that the NCEDI has not met for a year and should be reorganised.

He said that three or four “social settlements” with houses of 70 to 80 sq m must be urgently built on municipal land with national budget financing.

Tomov said that the EU could provide two billion euro over 10 years under Roma integration projects, in addition to previously agreed resources.