December 7, 2006
The Coalition for Integrity – European Parliament Elections was launched Thursday, December 7, based on the Romanian model of the Coalition for a Clean Parliament (CPC). The event, hosted by the Cristal Palace Hotel in Bucharest, received the backing of the European Parliament Green Group. Representatives of all political parties in Bulgaria were invited to attend. The launch in Sofia took place after the Eastern European NGO network titled “A Coalition for Clean Parliaments in Eastern Europe” was formed in Sinaia, on October 14. The initiative belonged to the Romanian Academic Society, the coalition’s founder in Romania. The new coalition decided that the strategy adopted in 2004 for Romanian parliamentary elections (the “Coalition for a Clean Parliament” campaign) serve as model for similar initiatives in network member states, all of them European Union candidates. Bulgaria announced it intended to form such a coalition for the 2007 European Parliament elections.
The first financing partner that decided to back this effort was the European Parliament Green Group. On October 5, the Romanian coalition also announced it plans to reprise the campaign, for the May 2007 local European Parliament Elections.