Poland rejects gay project

Lisette Kampus, Campaign Against Homophobia

European Commission has a very nice iniciative which is ment for facilitating the cooperation between youth (18-25) in Europe, it is called the European Youth Programme. Youth Programme should be equally opened for all youth groups for various projects, but the Polish situation shows that it is not always the case.

In the European Youth Programme, there are 5 different actions under which young people or youth-workers can come up with a nice variety of activities. One of the actions is the European Voluntary Service (EVS) that gives a young person to spend up to 12 months in another country working as a volunteer for the project she/he has chosen. The decisions over projects and national guidelines of the programme are made by National Agencies which are in every member state of EU and other programme countries. This means that decisions are made locally, although, they should be in accordance with the general programme guidelines.

Polish LGBT organization Campaign Against Homophobia applied for the 1-st of June deadline with the project of sending organization EVS with the aim to send a volunteer to a hosting organization in Sweden for one year. Not to mention the fact that the decision of our project was severely delayed (and in case of positive answer, the project should have started on September 1-st), we got the answer on September 26-th, but also the content of the decision was rather suprising. Here's the decision of the Polish National Agency's selection committee:
"I would like to inform that today [26.09.06] the Selection Commitee decided to reject the project nr PL-21-433-2006-R3 submitted by Campaign Against Homophobia under Action 2 Youth Programme: European Volountary Service.

Majority of members of the Selection Committee stated that project of Campaign is against the policy of raising children and youth, which is implemented by the Ministry. The policy of Ministry does not support actions that aim to propagate homosexual behaviour and such attitude among young people. Also, the role of Ministry is not to support cooperation of homosexuals organizations."

In other words, the project was... gay!
Now, the rejection is surely no suprise (after all, the Youth Programme IS under the governance of Ministry of Education and the minister is a well-known homophobe Roman Giertych), but what is in fact suprising, is that for the first time the Ministry is making so secret of its homophobia and the fact that they in principle do not support LGBT organizations.

What next? We have already written several mails to the Commission asking what is their stand on the constant problems with the Youth Programme in Poland. Naturally, the Commission can only give careful, politically correct answers, but in this case, we are really hoping that there will be some measures taken as this decision of Polish Ministry of Education is, in fact, a clear violation of Youth Programme guidelines.

IGLYO media release
Polish government confirms its official attitude against LGBT people
"European Commission can no longer remain silent"
3rd of October 2006

Last week, the Selection Committee of the YOUTH program in Poland announced it rejected a European Voluntary Service project on the basis it would 'propagate homosexual behavior and attitude among young people'. This decision violates article 13 of the Amsterdam treaty, which explicitly forbids the discrimination of sexual minorities in the European Union. We demand that the Commission immediately takes appropriate measures against Poland, and announces its view on this happening.

We consider this action as a concrete proof of Poland's official attitude against homosexuals. Polish Prime-Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski recently explained to the European Commission during a visit to Brussels: "I ask you not to believe in the myth of Poland as an anti-Semitic, homophobic and xenophobic country… People with such preferences have full rights in Poland, there is no tradition in Poland of persecuting such people."
Directorate General of Justice, Freedom and Security of the European Commission recently ensured IGLYO that the Commission will keep running the YOUTH programme "according to the principles laid down in the EC Treaty and specified in the programme's legal basis". However, the Commission remained silent when the Polish Ministry of Education, Minister Giertych, during the spring commented about another LGBT project which was funded within the Youth Programme, stating "That it was a deprivation of young people", and warned that 'such organisations' should not get money in the future.

This latest action in a series of discriminatory moves from the Polish Ministry demonstrates that Giertych has indeed kept his promise. The Commission has to date failed in taking appropriate measures to prevent this situation from happening and the Commission cannot justify their silence any longer. We, the undersigned organisations, urge the Commission to respond to discrimination that contradicts the very heart of Europe's values.

On behalf of:
IGLYO - Björn van Roozendaal - Board member Campaign Against Homophobia (Poland) - Marta Abramowicz - Network coordinator The Federation of Swedish LGBT Student Organizations - SFG - Linda Elstad - Chairperson

For more information please contact
Björn van Roozendaal, IGLYO board member
+31 6 19 232257 / bjorn@iglyo.com

Notes for editors:

(1) We report the full explanation as given by the Polish National Agency of the Youth programme: "I would like to inform that today [28.09.06] the Selection Committee decided to reject the project nr PL-21-433-2006-R3 submitted by Campaign Against Homophobia under Action 2 Youth Programme: European Voluntary Service. Majority of members of the Selection Committee stated that project of Campaign is against the policy of raising children and youth, which is implemented by the Ministry. The policy of Ministry does not support actions that aim to propagate homosexual behaviour and such attitude among young people. Also, the role of Ministry is not to support cooperation of homosexual organizations."

(2) Director of the Polish National Agency, Alain Bruno, wrote on June 28th 2006: "The Youth Program offers young people opportunities for mobility and active participation in the construction of Europe. It is aimed at improving their skills and competencies, while stimulating active citizenship. With regards to the values stemming from the EC Treaty, the programme promotes the integration of young people in society, their sense of solidarity, as well as better understanding of cultural diversity and the fight against any form of racism and xenophobia or discrimination. Therefore, please be assured that the Commission, as ultimate responsible for the management of the YOUTH programme, will keep running it according to the principles laid down in the EC Treaty and specified in the programme's legal basis."
Furthermore, he said: "As this project was financially supported under the Ministry of Education, we seriously need to review the criteria of supported projects". He continued: "The rules and priorities of the programme under which such projects get money, need to be changed in order to prevent such organisations to get money in".

(3) IGLYO is the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer Youth and Student Organization and works to combat the discrimination and persecution of young lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth, www.iglyo.com. (4) Campaign Against Homophobia was founded in 2001 and is a non-government organization operating throughout Poland. The volunteers focus their efforts on a broadly understood fight against homophobia. www.kampania.org.pl (5) The Federation of Swedish LGBT Student Organizations (Sveriges Förenade Gaystudenter, SFG) is a federation for local LGBT student organizations at universities and university colleges in Sweden. www.gaystudenterna.nu