The International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (or, ILGA, for short) is a powerful umbrella group for the LGBT ideology.

ILGA-Europe is a "region" of this civil society association, which, according to its own website[1], and, among other things, does the following:

• "Monitors and influences the adoption of EU legislation and policies" which promote the LGBT ideology.
• "Follow[s] up on the implementation of EU legislation at European and national level."

Just to reiterate, ILGA-Europe says, on its website, that it works to influence EU legislation. In plain English, this means that ILGA-Europe is a lobbying organisation for the LGBT agenda.

Here are a few recent examples of how ILGA-Europe operates:

• ILGA-Europe is now engaging in a clandestine strategy against the pro-family European Citizens' Initiative, "Mum, Dad and Kids", including efforts to influence the EU Commission on the matter.[2]
• On the same initiative...chillingly, it appears that ILGA-Europe asks their affiliates to collect information on European pro-family campaigners.[2]
• ILGA-Europe is now propagating a project called, "Gay vs God", which attempts to break-down religious objection to the LGBT ideology/agenda, by cynically pitting the faithful against the tenets of their religious community, and or their leaders.[3]

So, why is this at all extraordinary?

Because ILGA-Europe has been in receipt of vast amounts of funding which has come directly from the EU Commission, and hence, indirectly, from EU taxpayers.

How can this be right or just?

In many of its own publications, the EU Commission is at pains to say that MEMBER STATES (not the EU, or the EU Commission) have EXCLUSIVE COMPETENCE in many areas of family life, including many areas which touch on the LGBT agenda.[4]

Nevertheless, in order to promote the LGBT agenda, the EU Commission seems to constantly seek "work-around" solutions, to get around their own rhetoric.

To any objective observer, the EU Commission's funding of ILGA-Europe could certainly appear as one such "work-around" solution.

But, might (or, in this instance, money and power) does not make right. And, it must stop.

Therefore, this petition makes three demands:

1. It asks the EU Ombudsman, Emily O'Reilly, to investigate any possible irregularities in the case of the EU Commission funding ILGA-Europe.
2. It will notify the Commissioners of this situation, and ask them to stop funding ILGA-Europe.
3. And, it will ask the Commission to reduce possible annual funding for any lobbying organisation, like ILGA-Europe, from 80% of the Forecast Budget, to a maximum of 10% of their Forecast Budget, to be used for non-lobbying purposes only.

Now, let's have a look at the evidence.

In 2012 (the latest figures we have), ILGA-Europe's budget was just over €2M, of which, they received €948K from EU Commission sources.[5] This means that roughly 49.3% of ILGA-Europe's total budget came from the EU Commission.

Further funding, from the Dutch Government and from the US Government, brought total PUBLIC funding to 71% of ILGA-Europe's total budget for 2012.

Of course, ILGA-Europe claim to be a "non-governmental" organisation. But, at least in 2012, ILGA-Europe was funded more like an arm of government.

We are seeking ILGA-Europe's Financial Statements (including funding allocations) for 2013, 2014 and 2015, and the Forecast Budget for this year. But, if their track-record is anything to go by, we expect to see something similar to the year 2012.

We note, here, that the EU's funding schemes - the so-called "PROGRESS" scheme till 2013, and now, the "Rights, Equality and Citizenship Programme 2014-2020" funding scheme - allow applicant organisations, who are FAVOURED by the Commission, to receive up to 80% of their annual Forecast Budget from the Commission...and, hence, the EU taxpayer.

A reasonable observer might conclude that such lavish funding could be tolerated, and even good, if the organisations in receipt of that funding were genuine charitable organisations, NOT, as in the case of ILGA-Europe, lobbying organisations, part of whose remit is to politically and legally challenge the jurisprudence of the Member States on issues related to the family.

In other words, in this instance, the Commission appear to be using taxpayers' own money against them.

This is wrong, and needs to stop.

Taxpayer funding should not be used to push a radical agenda on the public, period. The public have a right to be protected from EU Commission interference in areas which remain the exclusive competence of the Member States.

Please sign this petition, asking the EU Ombudsman to help protect the EU taxpayer from abuse, and to tell the Commission to stop funding ILGA-Europe.

Thank you!

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

[1] Third paragraph down - http://www.ilga-europe.org/what-we-do/our-advocacy-work

[2] https://agendaeurope.wordpress.com/2016/04/27/and-here-it-is-ilga-europes-secret-strategy-against-the-pro-family-eci-mum-dad-kids/

[3] https://agendaeurope.wordpress.com/2016/04/06/gay-vs-god-creating-false-myths-in-order-to-debunk-them/

[3] http://www.ilga-europe.org/gayvsgod

[4] Page 13 - http://ec.europa.eu/justice/discrimination/files/lgbti_actionlist_en.pdf

[4] Excerpt from http://www.asktheeu.org/en/request/eu_commission_boat_in_europride2 - from the EU Commission's Directorate-General for Justice and Consumers: "None of the activities of the campaign, including the participation at the Europride 2016, seek to promote civil partnerships, gay marriage, same-sex adoption or any other issue related to substantive family law, which is the exclusive competence of the Member States. The aim of the campaign is to improve social acceptance of LGBTI people and raise awareness of existing EU legislation."

[5] https://agendaeurope.wordpress.com/eu-funding-of-gay-and-feminist-lobby-groups/