WUNRN
Wall Street Journal
European Women's Lobby:
HUNGARY - EC/EU ASKS HUNGARY TO STOP
ANTI-ABORTION CAMPAIGN
By Veronika Gylyas - June 10, 2011
The European Commission requested Hungary to stop its anti-abortion campaign because it was financed mainly using EU money allotted to gender equality projects.
The Hungarian government earlier this year chose against an outright ban on abortion, but started an ad campaign hoping to reduce the numbers of legal abortions. The campaign is set to run for two months and show a picture of a fetus with the words, “I understand it if you aren’t ready for me, but rather put me up for adoption, let me live!”
Through the Progress Fund, the EU subsidizes projects aimed at gender equality. Some members of the European Parliament asked the European Commission in May whether the Commission was aware that the fund, designed to support the implementation of the EU’s social agenda, was being used to finance an anti-abortion campaign.
In response, commission vice-president Viviane Reding urged Hungarian authorities to immediately stop the campaign, saying its funding using EU money was improper.
“The Commission made it very clear: using EU money from the Progress program or any other EU source to promote an anti-abortion campaign is an abuse and is incompatible with EU values,” Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats member Sylvie Guillaume said.
Hungary’s National Resources Ministry, responsible for social affairs, said its interpretation of what the Progress Fund is for differed from that of the commission, but concerns would be clarified as soon as possible.
“The Hungarian government intends to put an end to the case as soon as possible,
and considers it a technical and legal issue,” the ministry told Emerging
Europe Real Time, adding it will be ready to “draw the appropriate conclusion”
in case it couldn’t dissolve the EC concerns, but didn’t elaborate what those
conclusions could be.