The EU has rejected six Polish towns’ application for EU grants under the bloc’s twinning programme to encourage people’s participation in debating EU policies, Equality Commissioner Helena Dalli said on July 29.
"EU values and fundamental rights must be respected by member states and public authorities. This is why six town twinning applications involving Polish authorities that adopted ‘LGBTI free zones’ or ‘family rights’ resolutions were rejected,” Dalli said on Twitter.
As many as 80 Polish municipalities adopted declarations they were “free of LGBT ideology”, a concept peddled by the government led by the Law and Justice (PiS) party.
The incumbent President Andrzej Duda, who was re-elected earlier this month, made attacks on the LGBT community one of the key points of his campaign in smalltown Poland in particular.
The EU selected 127 cities and projects — including eight from Poland— to receive over €2mn in grants under Europe for Citizens project.
"The call for proposals for the twinning programme stipulates that it must be accessible to all European citizens without any form of discrimination on the basis of gender, ethnic origin, religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation," a Commission spokesman told AFP.
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