EU to sponsor gay rights boat, upsetting Hungary

The European Commission is, for the first time ever, to take part in a gay pride event by sponsoring an EU boat in a flotilla in Amsterdam in summer.

It is part of a new PR and legislative project warmly welcomed by most EU states on Monday (7 March).

But Hungary doesn’t like the initiative and did not sign the statement published by the 27 other countries.

The commission itself appears to be lukewarm about it.

The EU boat will be one of 80 at the event, which takes place at the end of July. Other participants are to include a boat on the theme of gay athletes sponsored by German sportswear firm Adidas, a Moroccan boat, and a Ukrainian boat carrying the Ukrainian pop star Kamaliya.

Danny de Vries, the Amsterdam Gay Pride spokesman, told EUobserver the EU’s application was selected in an open competition.

He said the winning ideas best conveyed the message that “people should be proud of who they are and free to love whom they want to love.”

He said Amsterdam Pride this year has the larger status of a “Europride” event and that it was a “good coincidence” that it comes shortly after the Dutch EU presidency, which ends on 1 July.

De Vries said the commission told the organisers it is “the first time” but also “the last time” that it will take part in such an event.

He indicated the organisers chose the EU entry despite being short on information on what the boat will look like. “I have no information on whether the commissioner will be on it or not,” he said, referring to Vera Jourova i, a Czech politician who is the EU’s top official on justice and gender equality issues.

The boat is part of a commission action plan on gay rights adopted last year.

Other actions include reviving by 2019 an old legal proposal on equal treatment for sexual and other minorities on access to goods and services and helping EU capitals to combat online hate speech.

But the Amsterdam boat project appears to have a low profile in Jourova’s agenda.

When contacted by EUobserver, the commission’s office in The Hague had no information about it. When asked by this website what it would look like or why the commission would not take part in other pride events in the EU, Joureva’s spokesman also had no information.

Hungarian sovereignty

Meanwhile, Hungary dislikes the boat and action plan more broadly speaking.

The Dutch EU presidency had hoped to formally endorse Joureva’s plan at a meeting of social affairs ministers in Brussels on Monday.

But Hungary’s right-wing government vetoed the move because, it said, EU promotion of gay rights threatened its sovereignty.

“Hungary could not support the document on the rights of LGBTI persons - exclusively prepared by the commission - at the Council meeting in its present form due to the fact that serious concerns related to the sovereignty of the member states were raised,” Dora Bokay, a spokeswoman for Hungary’s EU mission told EUobserver.

Two Dutch ministers said they were “disappointed” with Budapest.

Ilga-Europe, a Brussels-based gay rights NGO, also said it “would have much preferred to have seen full unanimity.”

But it welcomed the group-of-27 statement. It said that it “breathes life” into Joureva’s plan and that it shows most EU capitals want “practical progress sooner rather than later.”

Hungary isn’t the only EU member which has held back the commission on gay rights in the past, however.

German U-turn?

Germany has for a long time said No to the equal treatment directive on goods and services which the commission first proposed 16 years ago.

It is one of the most gay-friendly EU jurisdictions.

But it said in the past the law would impose too high a cost on small businesses, such as bars and cafes, which would be forced, among oter provisions, to install wheelchair access.

Asked by EUobserver if its decision to undersign Monday’s informal communique means a U-turn on the directive, the German mission to the EU declined to comment.