The EU’s ambassador to Serbia, French diplomat Vincent Degert, has said he is willing to personally attend the Belgrade Pride event in the Serb capital on Sunday 10 October.[:]

The last Pride event in Belgrade, in 2001, ended in mass-scale street fights when football supporters’ clubs, among others, attacked the pro-gay-rights marchers. A planned event in 2009 was cancelled over security fears.

MEPs, such as the Finnish chair of the European Parliament’s human rights sub-committee, Green deputy Heidi Hautala, are also taking an increasing interest in the issue of gay rights on the EU’s eastern fringe. “A country aspiring to join the EU should strive to combat all discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation. In the EU family there should be no room for prejudice and violence against the Other. At the end of the day this is about equality between each human being,” Ms Hautala told EUobserver on the Belgrade event.

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