New European Parliament report in the making on a future EU LGBT equality roadmap

Tomorrow the European Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) will start working on a new strategy against homophobia and discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity.

The debate can be watched live online from 10.30am CET (watch live).

The European Commission has already adopted strategies to coordinate its policies and legal proposals in the field of equality, such as the EU Strategy for equality between women and men 2010-2015, the European Disability Strategy, or the EU Framework for National Roma Integration Strategies.

Since January 2011, the European Parliament has regularly called on the Commission to adopt a similar strategy for equality on grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity. The LIBE committee published a comprehensive study on the feasibility of an LGBT roadmap, and eleven Member States have also called for an LGBT roadmap.

This roadmap would serve to guide EU and Member State actions, while respecting the principle of subsidiarity: the Commission would use its powers under EU treaties, including facilitating the exchange of good practice among Member States.

Political groups in the LIBE Committee have agreed to work on a new report outlining the future contents of a roadmap. The Committee has appointed as Rapporteur Ulrike Lunacek MEP, Co-President of the LGBT Intergroup.

Kinga Göncz MEP, Vice-President of the LIBE Committee and member of the LGBT Intergroup, commented: “The FRA’s LGBT survey results raise clear concerns regarding the implementation of those European values we all cherish: equality, human dignity, and respect for the human rights of all, including minorities.”

“I am quite disappointed that Viviane Reding, Vice-President of the Commission in charge of fundamental rights, failed to take up the Parliament’s and some Member States’ calls for a roadmap. We’ll continue working toward this nonetheless.”

Ulrike Lunacek MEP, author of the new report and Co-President of the LGBT Intergroup, added: “This report is a wake-up call for the Commission to protect the human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people across policy areas.”

“Why does EU law prohibit discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation at work, but not at school? Why does the EU punish racist and xenophobic speech, but not homophobic and transphobic speech? These are some of the issues we will work on.”

The report will be presented to the LIBE Committee Tuesday 5 November at 10.30am (watch live).