Changes from plenary report to adopted text

13. Expresses deep concern over LGBTIQ+ persons needing to exercise their right to request asylum in the European Union; expresses concern that trans and intersex persons face additional obstacles in the process of applying for asylum; underlines the importance that the situation of LGBTIQ+ persons is taken into account when designing the Union's asylum and migration policy;

14. Expresses deep concern with the rise of hate speech, hate crimes and violence against LGBTIQ+ persons, including in online platforms, where it could lead to breaching privacy rights of viewers of LGBTIQ+ content; recalls the need for preventive and protective public policy regarding bias-motivated hate speech, hate crimes and violence against LGBTIQ+ persons; recognises there is an under-reporting of cases of hate speech and crimes against LGBTIQ+ people, due to a lack of trust and confidence in public authorities to tackle such crimes;

15. Condemns the fact that the rise of far-right political forces has motivated an increase in the stigmatisation, harassment, violence and persecution of LGBTIQ+ persons and LGBTIQ+ civil society organisations and activists; condemns the increasing scapegoating of the LGBTIQ+ community and the harmful designation of the promotion of LGBTIQ+ rights as an ‘ideology’;

16. Underlines the need for the EU to address the situation of LGBTIQ+ persons in formal negotiations with candidate countries and to support all enlargement countries to close legislative gaps and secure fundamental rights of LGBTIQ+ persons;

17. Insists that the EU needs to take a common approach to the legal recognition of same-sex marriages and partnerships, and of rainbow parents, including trans parents, and to legal gender recognition, to ensure the best interests of children in line with CJEU and ECtHR case law;

18. Highlights the challenges faced by trans, non-binary and intersex people in the EU, particularly as regards their socio-economic and sociodemographic status; underlines how the absence of legal gender recognition procedures or barriers to accessing them in Member States violate the rights and hinder the aspirations of trans, non-binary and intersex people across the Union;

19. Insists that rainbow families have a right to free movement in the EU, and the children of rainbow families should not be discriminated against in acquiring EU citizenship;

20. Expresses concern that facial recognition and profiling technology might create greater risks for LGBTIQ+ people, in particular for trans and non-binary and intersex people;

21. Regrets the lack of a cohesive overview of EU funding for LGBTIQ+ equality under the different programmes supporting the Strategy;

22. Emphasises the urgency for the Commission to ensure access to funding for civil society organisations (CSOs) working for the human rights of LGBTIQ+ persons in the Union and in third countries; notes that adequate and flexible funding to CSOs advocating for LGBTIQ+ rights is an essential enabling condition for the protection and promotion of LGBTIQ+ rights, in the European Union and in third countries;

23. Welcomes EU initiatives directed at protecting LGBTIQ+ human rights defenders and at facilitating their work of defending fundamental rights; emphasises the need for the EU to continue tackling the stigmatisation, intimidation, harassment of LGBTIQ+ human rights defenders across the world: welcomes the Commission’s support of LGBTIQ+ activists in Ukraine, especially through the ‘direct award’ modality since the start of the Russian invasion and war of aggression against Ukraine;

24. Recalls that European humanitarian aid should be gender-, age-, protection- and LGBTIQ+-sensitive, while taking into consideration intersectionality as a cross-cutting principle, and in line with humanitarian principles;

25. Underlines that the EU must leave no one behind in the protection of fundamental rights;

Recommendations

26. Calls for the EU and the Member States to ensure the true mainstreaming of LGBTIQ+ rights across all EU policies; calls for policies to cover grounds of multiple and intersectional discrimination, which can be based on, among other grounds, socio-economic status, age, race, religion, actual or perceived sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression and sex characteristics or disability; calls for policies to consider the particular contexts of rural, peripheral and outermost regions;

27. Calls for the EU and the Member States to include SOGIESC in the grounds taken into account in the EU anti-discrimination legislation, in line with Parliament’s mandate on the proposal for a directive on standards for equality bodies;

28. Calls for the EU and the Member States to involve LGBTIQ+ persons in policymaking, including in the design and implementation of socio-economic and housing and education policies; calls on the Member States to tackle the cost of living and housing crisis, including by defining specific measures for the LGBTIQ+ people;

29. Calls on the Member States to implement the Directive on equal treatment in employment and occupation;

30. Welcomes the Commission’s proposal for a regulation on jurisdiction, applicable law, recognition of decisions and acceptance of authentic instruments in matters of parenthood and on the creation of a European Certificate of Parenthood to protect the rights of all children by ensuring that their parental ties, including particularly same-sex parents, established in one Member State are recognised in all EU Member States; asks the Commission to explore the potential of other legal bases in the Treaties, notably Article 19 and 21 TFEU, to ensure that LGBTIQ+ persons’ marriages, partnerships, parenthood and family lives are fully and unconditionally recognised by all Member States without discrimination and obstacles to free movement;

31. Welcomes the Commission decision of 15 July 2021 to start legal action against Member States for violations of fundamental rights of LGBTIQ+ people; calls on the Commission to continue to monitor closely the implementation of EU law in the Member States and to launch infringement procedures in cases where the fundamental rights of LGBTIQ+ persons have been violated under Article 2 TEU, the Charter of Fundamental Rights or secondary legislation, where applicable; calls on the Commission to systemically have recourse to expedited procedures and applications for interim measures before CJEU;

32. Calls on the Commission to ensure that Member States comply with the judgments of the CJEU and ECtHR, by addressing cases of non-compliance using the actions under Article 260(2) TFEU and the Rule of Law Conditionality Regulation, in particular on LGBTIQ+ persons and rainbow families crossing borders within the EU;

33. Calls on all Member States to adhere to the Guidelines for Strategies and Action Plans to Enhance LGBTIQ Equality as prepared by the LGBTIQ Equality Subgroup;

34. Calls on the Member States to expand coverage of healthcare services, allowing LGBTIQ+ persons to seek specific care, including sexual and reproductive health and technologies; urges the Commission and the Member States to adopt measures to combat discrimination against LGBTIQ+ persons in the health sector;

35. Calls on the Member States to provide greater funding for the provision of services for victims of gender-based violence and for them to support LGBTIQ+ victims, in particular LGBTIQ+ women, addressing their specific needs and experiences;

36. Recalls the need to ensure that facial recognition and profiling technologies are guided by the principles of transparency, explainability, fairness, and accountability in order to address the biases and risks created for LGBTIQ+ people;

37. Calls for the EU to give access to asylum to LGBTIQ+ persons, including those from third countries classified as safe countries;

38. Calls on the Commission to ensure support for LGBTIQ+ equality in action under the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund, as announced in the LGBTIQ Equality Strategy 2020-2025, and include said support in the Work Programme 2023-2025;

39. Calls on the European Union Agency for Asylum (EUAA) to swiftly finalise its practical guidance on applicants with SOGIESC and for Member States to then adhere to this guidance;

40. Calls on the Commission to monitor the impacts and fund CSOs and academic projects investigating the anti-gender movement, in order to effectively address it;

41. Calls on the Commission and Member States to draw from the empirical and systematic knowledge built by CSOs and academic researchers when designing policies and programmes to support LGBTIQ+ people in Europe and around the world;

42. Calls for the Union and Member States to recognise actual or perceived sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression and sex characteristics as bias-motivations; calls on the Commission and the Member States to address hate speech, hate crimes and violence motivated by SOGIESC bias, including online; welcomes the Commission’s initiative to extend the list of EU crimes in Article 83(1) TFEU to hate speech and hate crimes, which would allow for establishing minimum rules concerning the definition of criminal offences and sanctions applicable in all EU Member States; highlights the need to ensure a robust EU criminal law response to hate speech and hate crime; strongly regrets that almost two years have passed since the publication of the Commission communication and that the Council has made no progress on it, even though it was able to swiftly expand the list of EU crimes for other purposes; regrets such inaction in the light of the increase in hate speech and hate crimes; reiterates its call on the Council to work diligently towards a consensus so that the Commission can initiate the second stage of the procedure;

43. Urges the Commission to take forward a programme of work to raise awareness and encourage the reporting of SOGIESC bias-motivated hate crimes; urges the Commission and the Member States to ensure police and judicial officers receive training on LGBTIQ+ issues, to better support LGBTIQ+ people and adequately investigate and prosecute cases of hate crimes;

44. Calls on the Commission to explore the EU legal framework and the possible avenues that could be followed to counter and ban conversion practices at EU level, and push Member States to ban ‘conversion practices’ on the grounds of SOGIESC;

46. Calls for a ban on genital mutilation, in particular intersex genital mutilation and female genital mutilation;

47. Calls on Member States to continue to exchange best practices on safeguarding the fundamental rights of intersex children;

48. Calls for a ban on forced abortions and on forced sterilisations; underlines the importance of LGBTIQ+ persons’ right to self-determination, autonomy and physical and mental health; underlines that the position of Parliament on the proposal for a directive on combating violence against women and domestic violence includes adding FGM, IGM and forced sterilisation to the list of EU crimes;

49. Calls on the Member States to recognise marriage and parenthood of same-gender couples for the purposes of exercising rights derived from EU law, as required by the CJEU;

50. Calls on the Member States to put in place accessible legal gender recognition legislation and procedures, with the support of the Commission;

51. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to promote safe and inclusive environments in education, culture, sports and other sectors;

52. Calls on the Member States to take further steps to guarantee equal rights for LGBTIQ+ people with disabilities, through explicit protections against discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity that are needed in all areas of life including employment, housing, education, public accommodations, and credit;

53. Calls on the Member States to implement the Council Recommendations on Pathways to School Success, and especially to include measures against the discrimination of LGBTIQ+ persons, particularly LGBTIQ+ youths, to ensure safe and inclusive education;

54. Urges the Commission and the Member States to step up measures to address bullying and harassment of LGBTIQ+ children and young people in schools and to raise awareness of those cases; underlines that such situations contribute to social exclusion;

55. Calls on the Commission to expand the Erasmus+ funding under the topic ‘Promoting LGBT+ equality’ through active communication efforts in cooperation with national authorities;

56. Calls for the EU to set an example and assume a leadership role on the promotion of LGBTIQ+ rights around the world, in line with its human rights guidelines on non-discrimination in external action;

57. Calls on the Commission to instate a Special Representative for LGBTIQ+ Equality in the European External Action Service in order to ensure a horizontal implementation of the LGBTIQ Equality Strategy 2020-2025 abroad;

58. Expresses concern about the state of LGBTIQ+ rights worldwide; calls on the Commission and European External Action Service (EEAS) to use development policy as a tool to enforce reforms in developing countries, to address the setback in the recognition and protection of these rights and to ensure rights for LGBTIQ+ persons;

59. Calls on the Commission to ensure that LGBTIQ+ persons are given support as part of budgetary and funding instruments, as well as of wider development aid programmes;

60. Calls on the Commission to support candidate countries and potential candidate countries in the implementation of EU legislation, including in the field of LGBTIQ+ rights, and monitor their progress;

61. Calls on the Commission to further improve the possibility of regranting and to provide flexible funding to enable small, grassroots human rights defenders and other civil society actors working on the promotion of LGBTIQ+ rights to access such funding, in the Union and in third countries, in accordance with EU law;

62. Calls on the Commission to further improve its communication about funding opportunities to promote LGBTIQ+ equality, particularly in Member States where equality has faced setbacks;

63. Calls on the Commission to ensure that the Member States manage EU funds in compliance with the Charter, with the inclusion of the right to non-discrimination, as required by a horizontal ‘enabling condition’ under the Common Provisions Regulation (CPR); stresses that no expenditure can be reimbursed by the Commission until the applicable enabling conditions have been fulfilled;

64. Calls for the EU to continue tackling the stigmatisation and harassment of LGBTIQ+ human rights defenders (HRDs) and protecting HRDs in third countries; urges the EU to extend such mechanism to human rights defenders in the EU, allowing protecting LGBTIQ+ HRDs in Member States;

65. Urges the EU to extend such protections to HRDs in EU Member States;

66. Calls on the Commission to step up data collection on discrimination based on SOGIESC and to use this data in making inclusive public policies tailored for LGBTIQ+ persons and to support the Member States’ use of this data;

67. Calls on all Member States to self-assess their progress in implementing the LGBTIQ Strategy and share their results with the Commission and Parliament;

68. Calls on all Member States to adopt national LGBTIQ+ action plans and strategies until 2025;

69. Calls on the Commission to draw up a new LGBTIQ+ Equality Strategy for 2025-2030, based on strong commitments, reflecting the Charter, the calls and expectations of Parliament, of CSOs and of LGBTIQ+ persons in Europe and around the world; ask the Commission to communicate a time line on the next LGBTIQ+ Equality Strategy before the 2024 European Parliament elections;

70. Calls on the Commission to ensure that the next LGBTIQ+ Equality Strategy is driven by a more robust instrument, accompanied by a target-oriented implementation plan, a strong mainstreaming structure ensuring LGBTIQ+ rights are mainstreamed across all EU policies including all grounds of sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression and sex characteristics and resource allocation; to include a timeline and milestones, ensuring the monitoring, evaluation, accountability and learning processes, including the consultation of LGBTIQ+ organisations; further calls on the Commission to pay particular attention to groups in vulnerable situations, such as LGBTIQ+ children and youth;

71. Calls on the Commission to secure a portfolio for an Equality and Diversity Commissioner in the next term;