Funds for the Roma community in Bulgaria and Romani should go to Germany, Joachim Stamp said

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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.