Most parties of the extreme right opposed EU enlargement, but ironically it is the accession on 1 January 2007 of Romania and Bulgaria that gave their the new group its critical mass, BBC commented.

In an article, entitled "EU's unlikely far-right coalition", the author Alix Kroeger explains that to qualify as a recognised group, Identity, Tradition, Sovereignty (ITS) needs at least 20 MEPs from six EU countries.

Five of the ITS MEPs come from the nationalist Greater Romania Party and one from Bulgaria's Attack Coalition.

Both parties were already at the Parliament as part of their countries' observer delegations before accession and both have a history of hostility to Roma, or gypsies, the article comments.

Last year, a Roma MEP, Livia Jaroka, was nominated for an award as parliamentarian of the year.

In an e-mail to the organisers of the award, Dimitar Stoyanov of the Attack Party replied:

"Well, gentlemen, I must disagree with you. In my country there're tens of thousands of gypsy girls way more beautiful than this honourable one. In fact if you're in the right place on the right time you even can buy one (around 12-13 years old) to be your loving wife. The best of them are very expensive - up to 5,000 euros a piece, wow!"

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