The EU uses the same expert three times to force recognition of same-sex families

10 May 2023

A person who works in the European institutions is concerned about how the LGTBI lobby is present in them and "puts pressure on the democratic debate and national powers."

The European Commission has repeatedly used the same legal expert announced as "independent" to draft several reports and a legislative initiative.

Specifically, a person who works in the European institutions and who prefers not to give his name tells El Debate that experts related to certain topics are being used, such as homosexual marriage and its legislation in member countries. This is the case of the 'Recognition of paternity' project proposed by the European Commission, it is a regulation – a legislative instrument with direct effect, without approval by national parliaments – aimed at harmonizing legislation on same-sex families throughout the EU.

These Member States would be forced to recognize the effects of same-sex marriage, including surrogacy, contracted in another Member State.

It was at the end of this month of April 2023 when the European Parliament, and more specifically, its Directorate General for Internal Policies, carried out a study on this topic entitled 'Cross-border legal recognition of paternity in the EU'.

Expert close to the LGTBI lobby

The study has been written by Alina Tryfonidou , professor of law at the University of Reading (United Kingdom) and Neapolis University in Cyprus. As she herself acknowledges, she is close to NELFA (network of European lesbian and gay family associations) and provided legal advice to this lobby . Likewise, she was a member of the European Commission's expert group.

Although supposedly independent, a third of the experts were linked to the surrogacy business or had provided legal advice on how to recognize surrogacy contracts.

Tryfonidou was also closely associated with the drafting of the Regulation by the European Commission, "to such an extent that she knew the content of the text before its official publication," comments a source close to the archive.

For more information, the administrator responsible for this study was Ottavio Marzocchi , former parliamentary assistant of the Italian Radical Party, who participated in the witch hunt against Commissioner Rocco Buttiglione in 2004. This politician, a practicing Catholic, had been nominated to be European Commissioner for Justice in the Commission of José Manuel Durão Barroso , but his personal beliefs were questioned in hearings by socialists, liberals and greens. Eventually, his name was replaced.

A study without criticism

The present study, commissioned by the European Parliament, is closer to a commentary on the Regulation. There are no criticisms – neither positive nor negative – of the legislative proposal, but rather an explanation.

On the author's side, "it is understandable that she does not criticize a text that she helped herself to a great extent to write . " This study appears to be "a copy-paste of her previous arguments," she claims. Professor Tryfonidou uses this study to once again advocate for the recognition of homopaternity, as she has been doing repeatedly for a year.

Likewise, try not to emphasize that the scope is not LGTBI families, but rather use the term "alternative families." Surrogacy , to make matters worse, is explicitly mentioned and seems to be a more important topic than same-sex families (95 occurrences out of 12).

According to the aforementioned person who works in the European institutions, it is “very worrying that the EU uses the same expert three times to promote the recognition of same-sex families. "She shows how the LGTBI lobby is present within European institutions and puts pressure on democratic debate and national competencies."