His Bulgarian colleague brags that his country has the "prettiest Gypsies" and says he knows where to buy 12-year-old Gypsy brides for "up to €5,000" (£2,250).

Then there is the Polish professor who uses public office to pay tribute to General Franco, the late Spanish dictator. Or the intellectual strategist of an Austrian party whose ideology, according to a Vienna court, is similar to that of Hitler's "national socialism".

Such are the leading lights of "Europe of the Fatherlands", the world of politically organised European far-right extremism who are expected to form their first transnational organisation next week by establishing a formal caucus in the European parliament.

The development is an early result of the accession of Romania and Bulgaria. Ironically, given the hostility of the west European far right to expansion, to immigration, and to eastern Europe, it is Romania's entry that has made the caucus possible: the EU parliament's rules stipulate that an official caucus in the chamber needs to have representatives from at least five countries, and a minimum of 19 MEPs. They now meet this requirement.

Efforts have been under way for years to increase the clout of the far right in Europe by pooling assets and resources. The former pioneer of the modern European populist right, Jörg Haider of Austria, was wooed as a possible European leader. But the plans foundered because of differences among the notoriously fractious national leaders. These frictions remain. Italy's Northern League, for example, is boycotting the caucus because the league's head, Umberto Bossi, cannot stand the leader of France's National Front, Jean-Marie Le Pen.

"It's pretty much watertight, although there are still a few imponderables," the far-right Austrian MEP Andreas Moelzer told the Austrian press agency. "We've already got a common programme."

The plan is to announce the creation of an official parliamentary caucus during the first session of the year on January 15. The caucus will bring together about 20 MEPs from at least six countries. Mr Moelzer said the numbers could expand to 40. Ashley Mote, an MEP for south-east England who sits as an independent and was previously from the UK Independence party, is being mentioned as a member.

Bulgaria's quota of European parliament seats includes one held by the extreme Ataka party of Volen Siderov, which campaigns against Gypsies or Roma and Turks, while Romania has supplied a breakthrough for the hard right by gaining five seats for Corneliu Vadim Tudor's anti-Hungarian, anti-Semitic and anti-Roma Greater Romanian party.

The turnaround came last week when Mr Tudor said his delegates would join the new caucus, expected to be named either "Europe of the Fatherlands" or "Identity, Sovereignty, Tradition".

The brains behind the new movement are Mr Moelzer, who was an ideologist for Mr Haider for years before falling out with him, and Frank Vanhecke, the leader of Vlaams Belang, Belgium's separatist Flemish nationalist party. Ironically, Mr Moelzer's Austrian Freedom party voted against letting Romania join the EU.

Bruno Gollnisch, a French MEP and a deputy leader of Mr Le Pen's National Front, is expected to lead the new group, with Mr Moelzer as its general secretary.

The members include Alessandra Mussolini, granddaughter of the Italian former fascist leader Benito, and Dimitar Stoyanov, a new Bulgarian MEP who circulated an email saying there were much "prettier Gypsies" in Bulgaria after a Hungarian Roma woman was named European MP of the year a few months ago. "You can even buy yourself a loving [Gypsy] wife aged 12 or 13 ... The best of are very expensive, up to €5,000 each."

Mr Gollnisch is awaiting a verdict from a Lyon court on charges of questioning the Holocaust. Other possible members of the group include the League of Polish Families, a junior partner in Warsaw's centre-right government, regularly accused of gay-bashing and anti-Semitism.

By establishing a formal caucus, the extreme right will benefit from greater EU funding. A priority, said Mr Moelzer, will be to fight any German-led attempts to revive Europe's comatose constitution.