Commenting on his show of support to Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban at last week's EU summit regarding the rights of sexual minorities, Slovenia's Prime Minister Janez Jansa said on Thursday that not everyone in the EU has to think the same. Pročitaj više

No one brought human and minority rights into question during the EU summit, Jansa said addressing a joint press conference with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in Brdo pri Kranju northwest of Ljubljana.

He added that the EU is an association of 27 members with different cultures and they do not all need to think the same.

The leaders of EU member states last week discussed a new Hungarian law which prohibits all educational materials for children that “promote” homosexuality, gender identity that differs to the one assigned at birth, or gender reassignment. The law was harshly criticised as being homophobic and, according to diplomatic sources, the discussion was quite emotional at times.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said that Hungary did not have anything to look for in the EU with that kind of law.

According to diplomatic sources, Rutte told Orban to retract the law or leave the EU.

“This bill clearly discriminates against people based on their sexual orientation. It goes against the fundamental values of the European Union,” EC President von der Leyen said last week and added that she had instructed responsible commissioners to send a letter to the Hungarian government expressing legal concerns before the bill enters into force.

Jansa: EU enlargement is a ‘strategic response to challenges’

Addressing the joint press conference on Thursday after a meeting between EC members and Slovenian government officials at the start of Slovenia’s six-month presidency of the Council of the EU, Jansa said, among other things, that EU enlargement to the Western Balkans was a strategic response to numerous challenges.

That is why the Slovenian presidency will organise an EU-Western Balkans summit on 6 October, he said.

“In the past decade, when focus was not on EU enlargement we saw that someone else started to spread (influence) to the Western Balkans, and that was not about spreading freedom and the rule of law,” said Janša.