The European Centre-Right LGBT+ Alliance took part at the congress of the European People’s Party (EPP) in Rotterdam on May 31st and June 1st with a delegation and three seminars in the program of side events. This year was the fifth time the Alliance took part in the EPP Congress, but the first where the Alliance organised seminars.
The first seminar were headlined “Diversity and community” and professor Steven van Hecke talked about LGBT+ emancipation and the centre-right and Christian Democrat view. Attorney Jo-an van der Tol was guest speaker at the second seminar about LGBT+ and family life focusing the discussion on the rules and regulations – or rather lack of rules – concerning surrogacy and multiple parenthood.
The afternoon of the first day of the Congress was spent networking with others within the EPP family to build stronger relations to all parts of the party.
The third seminar was held in the morning of June 1st and covered LGBT+ and faith which is an important topic from several perspectives. Guest speakers Wilie Elhorst a theologian and pastor and Jos Douma, the special envoy for religion and belief at the ministry of foreign affairs of the Netherlands lead a good discussion. The day before joining the Congress a part if the board of the Alliance went to Brussels for meeting. At the party headquarters of CD&V we meet with Cianan Russel from ILGA Europe to talk about the development and trends across Europe and that shows in the latest rainbow map from ILGA. We then meet with party leader of CD&V Joachim Coens. At the European Parliament a meeting was held with the co-ordinator of the parliaments LGBTI Intergroup.
