Research Papers

In the course of EU Eastern Enlargement the European Commission interlinked the situation of Roma to the minority criterion for membership and defined its improvement as priority in the accession partnerships with a number of candidate countries. Thus, the handling of the Roma Issue was embedded in the institutional setting of EU enlargement conditionality and became an object of Europeanization. However, in the field of minority protection, both conditionality and its impact were weaker than in other areas. The respective EU demands had no counterpart in primary EU law, failed to provide clear concept or set of criteria, did not envisage a special safeguard clause and were not based on solid monitoring. At the latest, as the new member states joined the EU it became obviously that beside the declared political commitment and the extensive production of policy papers there is an overall lack of implementation. Aiming to shed light on the question how the Europeanization of Roma policy continues after EU enlargement quot; in terms of degree, mechanisms, direction and pace quot; this paper presents a case study on Bulgaria's efforts towards Roma inclusion since 2007. It draws on a concept of Europeanization as an interactive process and relies on synthetic analytical framework, which combines constructivist and rationalist perspectives. The paper proceeds in three main parts. It starts with stocktaking of Bulgaria's Roma policy during conditionality. In a next step the article focuses on the subsequent dynamics in the field. Finally, the paper discusses the EU Framework for national Roma strategies adopted in 2011 and gives an outlook about its future impact. Thereby it points out numerous indications, which suggest that in near future Roma policies in Bulgaria will not go beyond rhetorical commitment with EU demands.