Germany tries to seize BILLIONS in EU cash from Romania and Bulgaria to use ITSELF
GERMANY is trying to seize billions of pounds from Romania and Bulgaria meant for the Roma community after claiming they do not use it.
By ALIX CULBERTSON
Express.co.uk
Mon, Aug 7, 2017
Joachim Stamp, integration minister for Germany’s largest state, North Rhine Westphalia, said he finds it “extremely annoying” the two eastern European countries refuse to use funds from the European Social Fund (ESF) for its proper use.
Both EU member states receive funding worth millions of pounds every year to help their Roma communities, which is the largest minority group in the bloc with more than 10million living in Europe.
Bulgaria, which has 750,000 Roma – or 9.94 per cent of the population – was allocated £6.5billion from 2014-2020, with £4.6bn coming from the ESF.
Romania was handed £20.7bn, with £14.4bn from the ESF, in the same period to help its more than 1.1million-strong Roma population, which represented more than five per cent of the country’s overall population.
Mr Stamp said Romania and Bulgaria refuse to use the money for Romas so the cash should be re-distributed to the Ruhr region. The area, in eastern North-Rhine Westphalia, is the largest urban area in Germany and the third-largest in the EU.
Its two main cities, Dortmund and Duisburg, are home to a large number of immigrants from the two countries.
He told WAZ, the region’s largest newspaper: “These funds should be made available to cities like Dortmund and Duisburg.
“In Bulgaria, the Roma are not accepted at all.
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