Vittorio Agnoletto (GUE/NGL). – (IT) Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, as Martin Luther King said when launching the campaign for African-Americans’ rights, either we achieve freedom together or not at all. What he meant was that there are no black people’s rights or white people’s rights: there are just human rights. Fighting homophobia does not mean showing understanding towards a specific group in the population: first and foremost, it means upholding human rights.

I am frightened by the arrogance of those who deny homosexuals the chance to give blood; I am frightened by the discriminatory campaigns of those who are unable to talk about high-risk behaviour yet still allude to high-risk individuals in the fight against AIDS; or those who ban people from driving just because they are gay.

I cannot silently accept the attitude of a Commission that behaves like Pontius Pilate, in that it does not try to enforce a directive that already exists against discrimination; a Commission that ought to start infringement proceedings against countries that do not respect people’s freedom to choose their sexual orientation – that happens in Italy, Poland and a number of other countries. This is not an issue that just affects a particular group of people, but one that involves the dignity of the whole European Union.