Euro Commissioner promises action on homophobia
The European Parliament’s Intergroup on gay and lesbian rights has praised the vice president of the European Commission after a meeting to discuss strategies to fight homophobia and discrimination of the gay community.
The meeting followed the European Parliament’s debate on homophobia in Europe in January in which they were criticised for not agreeing a plan of action.
Commissioner Frattini promised the Intergroup that he will present a “horizontal directive” to combat all sorts of discrimination, and a green paper on “wills and inheritance”. He added that he had recently launched a study on “age of consent” discrimination.
“Commissioner Frattini had clearly done his home work since January, said Michael Cashman, (PES-UK), president of the Intergroup.
“However, I want to see this in writing before I give him a good grade,” Cashman added.
The Commissioner agreed with the Intergroup that same sex discrimination had to end, despite telling the BBC in January, “I am happy that in my country, Italy, the concept of marriage is not discussed, and that in fact it is said that it cannot be different from that established by Italian Constitution, that is to say between persons of different sex”
