ILGA-Europe: European Commission’s evasive answers trigger new questions
Posted on | March 13, 2012 by J.C. von Krempach, J.D. |
The European Commission’s funding of ILGA-Europe, a Potemkin-style “non-governmental” organization promoting homosexuality, continues to be a subject of concerns for Members of the European Parliament. The strategy of Commissioner Reding to answer questions evasively and to wait for Parliamentarians to lose interest in the issue does not appear to work.
As a reaction of Commissioner Reding’s sloppy reply to his earlier enquiry, Polish MEP Konrad Szymański has tabled a new series of questions:
Question for written answer P-002523/2012 to the Commission
Rule 117
Konrad Szymański (ECR)
Subject: Commission funding for the International Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA)The Commission’s reply to Written Question E 012149/2011 appears incomplete and lacks precision, thus I would like to raise some follow up questions:
1. According to the Commission, the financial support provided to the European Region of the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA-Europe) (which, as we have learned in the meantime, covers nearly 70 % of the organization’s total budget) ‘covers, among others, raising public awareness about the existing rights of all LGBT people in Europe…’. Does this statement imply that the funding is only partially used for the purposes indicated by the Commission, and that some of the funding is instead used for activities that have nothing to do with ‘raising public awareness about the existing rights of all LGBT people’? Do those activities for which the Commission provides funding include campaigns for legislative changes in Member States, such as the introduction of ‘same-sex marriage’ or the possibility for homosexuals to adopt children?
2. Does the Commission believe that promotion of ‘same-sex marriage’ and homosexual adoption, on which there is no common ground among Member States, falls within its competence under Article 19 of the TFEU?
3. If the Commission agrees that the promotion of same-sex marriage and homosexual adoption does not fall within the EU competence under Article 19 TFEU, which measures will the Commission take to ensure that funds provided to ILGA-Europe will neither directly nor indirectly be used for that purpose?
4. How does the Commission’s financing of ILGA-Europe’s campaigns for ‘same-sex marriage’ and homosexual adoption comply with the principles of equality and non discrimination, if lobby groups campaigning against such legislative changes do not receive equal funding? Does the Commission agree that the funding provided to ILGA creates a risk of distorting political competition on matters that are outside the EU’s competence?
5. What has Directive 2000/78/EC to do with Written Question E 012149/2011, given that that question did not at all refer to any discrimination in the context of employment and occupation?
6. Could the Commission kindly answer with greater precision to points 2 and 3 of Written Question E 012149/2011?
We will in due time inform you of the Commission’s reply.
