Stefano Gennarini and Kelly Heilman
(ZENIT News – Center for Family and Human Rights / New York, 12.20.2025).- The European Union blocked funding to two European pro-life groups charging that they do not adhere to “EU values,” specifically abortion, homosexual marriage, and gender ideology.
The European Union denied the Federation of Catholic Family Associations in Europe (FAFCE) EU project funding six times in recent years. The World Youth Alliance received three review letters from the EU, which are essentially threats to lose funding. Both groups are pro-life and pro-family and say they are being targeted for their pro-life and pro-family beliefs.
FAFCE’s President, Vincenzo Bassi, told the Italian Bishops’ daily newspaper Avvenire, that his group was the target of “ideological discrimination” based on the EU Commission’s latest LGBTIQ+ Equality Strategy.
Bassi explained that the Federation’s latest request for funds was turned down because it emphasized the importance of the family in their application and it is known that FAFCE represents Catholic families founded on the union of one man and one woman. EU authorities decided that “this focus (on the family) could violate EU equality norms” and that the group did not carry out enough “gender analysis” in its programs, which could in turn lead to discrimination.
FAFCE is one of Europe’s original pro-life and pro-family groups. It has represented Catholic family associations from across Europe in EU institutions since 1997 and operates on a shoestring budget. In recent years it has held events and campaigns to promote family policies, the protection of children, and to oppose abortion and surrogacy.
The World Youth Alliance (WYA) is a youth organization that promotes the engagement of pro-life and pro-family youth with international institutions. It has received EU project funding in recent years but appears slated to lose it all because of its pro-life and pro-family work.
WYA was recently accused by the George Soros funded group openDemocracy with spreading false information about abortion. As a result, a formal compliance investigation into the organization’s funding was opened and it was officially denied project funding. WYA’s status for future grants has not been determined.
WYA says the EU Commission does not have a legal basis for denying them funds. They argue that the Commission is relying on non-binding political decisions as if they were binding law.
EU funding projects are run by the EU Commission as the executive branch of the European Union. In recent years the Commission has begun to speak of “EU values” as a threshold issue for participating in EU civil society space and receiving EU funds.
The EU values that the Commission is purportedly enforcing are found in the 1992 Treaty on the European Union. That treaty provides the Commission with the authority to take action against EU member states for a failure to uphold “respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and human rights, including the rights of minorities.” The Commission interprets these EU values to include homosexual and transgender issues as well as abortion and extrapolates that its mandate requires imposing these as ideological requirements on organizations that receive EU grants.
These developments are part of a wider push by abortion and LGBT advocates to censor pro-life and pro-family groups and exclude them from participation in public debates. Several reports from groups funded by the EU Commission, the U.S. State Department, George Soros, and other progressive international actors call on international organizations to expel and deny participation to so-called “anti-rights” groups. Most recently, the “Next Wave Report” models this approach. It is authored by Neil Datta of the European Parliamentary Forum for Sexual & Reproductive Rights, an initiative of the International Planned Parenthood Federation European Network.
Most civil society organizations and charities in the European Union receive public funds and would not be able to operate without them. Unlike the United States, where the tax code encourages independent civil society institutions for religious, educational and charitable purposes, Europe does not historically have a robust civil society. Public funding from European institutions has tried to fill that gap. The difficulties that FAFCE and WYA face at the EU Commission show the tradeoff that happens when independent civil society groups become dependent on public funds.
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