Minorities: One of Hungary's new MEPs, a woman who will be the only Roma in the 732-member European Parliament, says she will represent all of Europe's gypsies and try to change perceptions about the maligned ethnic minority.
Ms Livia Jaroka (30) defies most stereotypes of Roma in both eastern Europe and the West, with two university degrees and a PhD in the works.
"The problems in Hungary are, sadly, also true in western European countries," the sociologist and politician said in an interview after Sunday's elections.
"I have visited gypsy shanty towns in Greece which were even worse than what we see in Hungary," she said. Hungary's estimated 450,000 Roma are the largest minority in the country of 10 million.
Ms Jaroka stood for election for Hungary's moderate right-wing opposition Fidesz party, which won 12 of Hungary's 24 allocated seats in the European Parliament.
She said her election meant Europe's 12 to 15 million Roma inhabitants, who comprise some 3 per cent of the EU's 450 million population, would have a voice in Brussels for the first time.
Roma speak different languages but share the common problems of poverty, discrimination and lack of access to employment, housing and education.
The head of the World Bank, Mr James Wolfensohn, said last year that the Roma minority had been discriminated against for centuries and Roma poverty in Europe had to be tackled.
Ms Jaroka called for an end to what she called media hysteria in the West. In the run-up to the accession of the 10 new member-states to the EU in May, Roma were often portrayed in Western media as scrounging criminals bent on seeking better lives on state benefits in western Europe.