 la Universitat de Barcelona. Ens hauríem d'anar en aquest molt ben necessari. I per acabar-nos. A tots els que han fet de d'avui possible, sobretot d'Europa, a Europa, i de la Fundació Solidaritat. Ens ho esperem que tinguem un moment d'avui, d'avui, d'avui, d'avui. Esperem que pugui guaudir. Ens ho esperem que pugui guaudir. Ens ho esperem que pugui guaudir. Ens ho esperem que pugui guaudir. speakers and several activities that I'm sure that will make it a meaningful day to you all. I ara, Nau, presentem la senyora Nagi. And now let's introduce Natch Defrer, the head of the team for non-discrimination at the DG of Justice, the European Commission, and we will listen to her through this Zoom connection. Thank you. Today we remember the struggles of the LGBTIQ plus communities, and by doing so we put the hours of the past, a past when homosexuality and trans identities were considered a disease behind us. In the European Union we are working hard to support all LGBTIQ communities. Two years ago we adopted the first ever strategy at the European Fund with actions to mainstream LGBTIQ equality into all policy areas. The goal is for no LGBTIQ person in the EU to discriminate it against at any point of their life and to be able to be who they are and to love who they want. As we work to improve life in the European Union, I want us to spare a thought for those who are even less fortunate position. We are living in worrying times right now. Violence and violation of human rights have returned to Europe on a larger scale at any time since the World War II. The distinction of hate and anger remind in most brutal way our important task of defending the common European values, human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, rule of law, human rights, will be. It's a privilege to live in a society in the EU in which pluralism, discrimination, tolerance, justice, solidarity and equality prevail. We must never forget it. It is extremely important that we continue working together for those values in the most determined way. The human rights do not remain and come through on their own. They must be actively cherished. In this very challenging situation, the Commission continues its effort to protect fundamental rights and fight discrimination by all its means. We follow closely the treatment of vulnerable groups including LGBTIQ people who flee the war from Ukraine to the EU. Let me now end with three concrete examples, my own conclusion on what we can learn from history as a policymaker. My first example is the success of the exhibition on gays and lesbians during World War II with the Shoah Memorial in Paris. When extreme power comes into force, all minority groups are at risk. Nowadays we see that those minority groups are sometimes played against each other. This is not the solution. My first conclusion is that solidarity and intersectionality should prevail. Second, during a team building we were lucky enough at the European Commission in my team to take part in the lesbian tour in Brussels, where there is no contemporary 是歸歸歸歸 in the times when homosexuality was decriminalised in 1985 in Belgium. She says that she receives groups of LGBTIQ activists from all over Europe, and that they always astonish to hear that in 20 years' time, Belgium made it possible for LGBTIQ people to marry and have a family as well as securing rights for trans people. Learning from history, we can clearly see that in the list for fundamental rights, there are sometimes setbacks però que es pot agafar molt ràpid, que és molt optimista per als països que saben que és una situació que no és favorable per a les qq persones. I, a més o a més, vull compartir amb tu que, durant una mesura, l'última setmana, amb l'estat de membre i a Norway, informen les commissions que la gran part de l'aigua de l'aigua de l'aigua de l'aigua de l'aigua serà basada en una història clara del país. A l'altre d'apri, es celebrava el 50e aniversari de l'endemà de criminalització de homosexualitat a Norway, i a l'aigua de la secundària del Primer Minister ha fet una organització oficial acerca de l'aigua de l'aigua de l'aigua de l'aigua de l'aigua de la comunitat. No hi hem de fer policies en un vehic保ig, una història ensbarra o hem de fer policies. I, per tant, baptitio a tots els governs per fer un unit al universitari i portar-hi desigua per desenvolupar la feina d'aigua de l'estat de la Highnessa. I, per tant, també en l'aigua de l'aigua de l'aigua de l'aigua de l'aigua de l'aigua de l'aigua de la comunitat. Em volia portar unọ fotóloga i en discussions also during this day. Thank you very much for your attention. Thank you very much. Now I speak. Dono la paraula. And now the floor goes to Xavier Florensa, the General Director of Public Policies LGBTQ and the Catalan Minister of Equality and Feminism and the Catalan Government. Good morning everyone. First of all, on behalf of the Catalan Ministry of Equality and Feminism, let me say how happy we are to be part of this opening event on this international meeting, support and memories. But also we would like to thank you for inviting us in being part of this process from this very inception when Oriol López got in touch with us in order to tell us about this project and to bring in people from the LGBTQ movement in the Catalan arena. And so let me extend this gratitude to Yusef Jiménez as well at the head of the LGBTQ division. Also all the units in the National Council, some of which will also participate in a panel discussion later on. And there's been a work done in recent months. I would also like to congratulate the University of Barcelona on such an initiative which is helpful to make visible the struggles of the LGBTQ community through researchers and through activists around Europe that will be here today during this meeting. And also to do so in these very symbolic days a week before the 28th of June, therefore enriching this whole agenda in Barcelona and Catalonia on that very special day on the 28th of June and considering all the different events taking place throughout these days. Sexual orientation, the gender expression of people and the fact that they do not fit into what's usually seen or been seen as the standard, as the norm, has made that historically and still is seen in many countries. People in the LGBTQ community have been repressed or have been socially excluded. Worth remembering that the WHO kept homosexuality as a condition until 1990, so that wasn't many years ago. And in the case of trans people, gender dysphoria has been kept until 2018 and even so to these days we are seeing legislation that aim trans as a condition. So this is not something that has been overcome for many years, but rather some achievements that are recent in time. Looking back in Catalonia, one can think about the silencing and the persecution that the LGBTQ community felt under Franco's regime, the social rehabilitation of the Franco regime, the law against slackers and crooks that was used against the LGBTQ community to force therapies on them. And that was not just on the community, but also on any behavior that was deemed antisocial by Franco's regime. And it was not until 1995 that was absolutely repealed or the demonstration in Barcelona, the first demonstration in 1977 by the LGBTQ community, the first one that took place in southern Europe, and that was strongly repressed by the law enforcement agencies or how some organizations were not made legal until the early 80s. This all goes to show the need to define these LGBTQ memories basically on two reasons. First of all, because we as a society need to be fully aware on the challenges in having these rights. Rights should not be taken for granted. It's not something that we get out of the blue. It's been a result, an outcome of a long, hard struggle. The fact that we now have this Catalan ministry in feminism 40 years after the comeback of the Catalan government, I think that it's a symbol and it's also an outcome of these struggles by many communities. And also we should be aware on how we need to support these rights considering some people that want these to be rolled back because at the end of the day the LGBTQ memory is helping us to prevent this from happening again and to revisit some of our darker episodes in our more recent history. As we are seeing within the framework of the European Union, such as Hungary or Poland, which are violating the fundamental rights of the LGBTQ community without any further impact other than political sanctions, but still some steps are being undertaken even in these European countries that are against the LGBTQ community. So there is much to be done and we need to value the historical memory, the democratic memory in the LGBTQ community. I'm sure that there are still many memorials lacking, many memorial spaces in the public environment and I'm sure that we will be talking about these later on. Also in the straight names of our towns and cities we are missing references on individuals that are a significant part of the LGBTQ struggle. So I think that this is worth considering, worth being aware of and hopefully from here on some additional proposals and additional steps can be put on. Once more, let me thank you for your initiative and I do hope that you can enjoy this conference and this is just the first conference of many more to come in order to recover this memory and to claim the struggle for the rights of the LGBTQ community which is a fight for equality and freedom and human rights. Thank you. Thank you very much. The director general. And this is, we will bring this opening part to close and we will now listen to the keynote speech the monuments to gays and lesbians in Europe forms of memory in the public space delivered and first chaired by Jordi Guichet the director of Eurom and the keynote speech will be delivered by Stephanie Endlich, honorary professor of public art at the University of Art in Berlin. Thank you very much.