All EU funding excluded from two family and pro-life groups

12th December 2025

A Europe-wide Catholic Association of pro-family groups has been excluded from all funding by the European Commission, for alleged violations of equality measures and EU values. The move seems to mean that a belief in the traditional family and the right to life is now considered contrary to official EU ideology.

Founded in 1997, and headquartered in Brussels, the Federation of Catholic Family Associations in Europe (FAFCE) represents 33 national and local associations. It holds a participatory status with the Council of Europe since 2001 and is a member of the Fundamental Rights Platform of the European Union.

Their advocacy work ranges from drawing attention to plunging birth rates, to work-family balance, protection of children, the harms of pornography, and matters of life and human dignity.

FAFCE President Vincenzo Bassi called the decision “an ideological discrimination” adding that the richness of European civil society is its pluralism, and “no organisation should ever be penalised for defending a legitimate position in the public square”.

Hungarian MEP, Kinga Gál, deplored the move saying FAFCE is “being punished simply for defending family as the fundamental unit of society”, a view which is now treated as “unacceptable” in Brussels due to “gender ideology”.

Separately, the well known World Youth Alliance (WYA) saw their funding rejected on the basis of their pro-life views. The WYA campaigns for human dignity “from conception till natural death” and has been advocating on behalf of life at major United Nations events since 1999.

The Iona Institute
Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.

You can adjust all of your cookie settings by navigating the tabs on the left hand side.