European Parliamentary Research Service Blog

Written by Piotr Bakowski, Marc Lilienkamp and Rosamund Shreeves,

International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia (IDAHOT)

Although prohibiting discrimination and protecting human rights are key elements of the EU legal order, discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) persons persists throughout the EU, taking various forms including verbal abuse and physical violence. The first ever EU-wide survey on the extent and nature of discrimination, violence and hate speech experienced by LGBT people across the EU, conducted by the EU Fundamental Rights Agency in 2012, found that almost half of the respondents had felt personally discriminated against or harassed within the previous year, whilst a quarter said that they had been attacked or threatened with violence in the past five years. Lesbian women (55 %), young people (57 %) and poorer LGBT people (52 %) were more likely to be discriminated against, whilst trans persons were shown to experience the highest levels of discrimination, harassment and violence amongst all LGBT subgroups. One of the key findings was that 90 % of such incidents go unreported to the authorities. A study issued for Parliament in 2018 has quantified the serious impact of discrimination on LGBTI individuals and wider society (including increased health risks, estimated lost earnings of €19-53 million and a GDP loss of €25-71 million) and highlighted the uneven protection in the current EU anti-discrimination legislation.

Although sexual orientation is recognised in EU law as a ground of discrimination, the scope of the provisions is limited and does not cover social protection, healthcare, education and access to goods and services, leaving LGBTI people particularly vulnerable in these areas. Moreover, EU competence does not extend to recognition of marital or family status. In this area, national regulations vary, with some Member States offering same-sex couples the right to marry, others allowing alternative forms of registration, and yet others not providing any legal status for same-sex couples. Same-sex couples may or may not have the right to adopt children and to access assisted reproduction. These divergent legal statuses have implications, for instance, for partners from two Member States with different standards who want to formalise/legalise their relationship or for same-sex couples and their families wishing to move to another Member State. In practice, lesbian and gay couples can encounter problems getting their partnership and rights recognised in another EU country. For instance, two women legally married in the Netherlands may lose pension, inheritance, next-of-kin, or child custody rights when moving to, say, Italy, Latvia, or Romania.

During its eighth term, the European Parliament has adopted a number of resolutions strongly condemning homophobia, highlighting discrimination and calling for further legislation and action to protect and extend LGBTI rights:

• Regarding the EU legislative framework, it has called for monitoring to ensure proper transposition and implementation of existing EU legislation and reiterated its support for a proposed new directive, which would protect against discrimination outside the labour market, but on which the Member States have as yet been unable to agree.
• On family and free movement issues, Parliament has encouraged the EU and the Member States to ‘reflect on the recognition of same-sex marriage or same-sex civil union as a political, social and human and civil rights issue’ and called for further action to ensure that same-sex couples and their families can truly exercise their right to free movement across the EU, including automatic cross-border recognition of adoption orders, without discrimination.
• In March 2018, Parliament’s Annual resolution on the situation of fundamental rights in the EU condemned all forms of discrimination against LGBTI people, including the practice of LGBTI conversion therapies and the pathologisation of trans people, and stressed the urgency of tackling increasing levels of hate speech and hate crime. Its resolution on gender equality in the media sector in the EU, adopted in February 2018, puts forward concrete proposals for combating hate speech and harmful stereotypes.
• Parliament has also drawn attention to the human rights situation for LGBTI people outside the EU and the need to ensure that their situation is taken into account in asylum procedures.

To mark this year’s International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia (IDAHOT) on 17 May, the Parliament’s Intergroup on LGBTI Rights – an informal forum for MEPs – is organising a specific event to highlight the situation of LGBTI people seeking asylum in Europe.

The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) notes that, in addition to the risks faced by refugees at large, LGBTI refugees also face a series of risks that that are unique to sexual minorities. In 2017, the first annual report from the UN’s Independent Expert on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity gave an overview of the current global situation. It documents widespread physical and psychological violence against LGBTI persons in all regions — including murder, assault, kidnapping, rape, sexual violence, as well as torture and ill-treatment in institutional and medical settings — and highlights that displaced LGBTI persons may face continued or additional discrimination in the country in which they seek asylum or when they are internally displaced within their country of origin. UNHCR guidelines on interpreting claims to refugee status based on sexual orientation and/or gender identity were adopted in 2012.

Nevertheless, in 2017 the EU Fundamental Rights Agency’s review of the current situation in the EU for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex asylum seekers, found that although international and EU law guarantees safety to those fleeing persecution, in practice LGBTI people are not receiving the protection they need. There are considerable differences between procedures in the EU Member States in terms of how they take account of claims based on sexual orientation and gender identity and only some EU Member States are applying the UNHCR guidelines. Advocacy organisations, such as ILGA-Europe and Transgender Europe, have also called for further action to ensure that LGBTI asylum seekers and refugees are given more effective protection in the EU and that the proposed new package of measures on the Common European Asylum System takes the specific situation of LGBTI people into consideration.

For its part, the European Parliament is preparing a number of amendments to this new migration legislation, to ensure that the specific problems encountered by LGBTI refugees and asylum seekers are taken into account in procedures for assessing asylum claims and arrangements for reception and resettlement. Parliament has already adopted a resolution highlighting the need for asylum professionals, including interviewers and interpreters, to receive proper training on the needs of LGBTI people and for LGBTI-sensitive reception facilities across all Member States. Its resolution of February 2017 on equality between women and men in the European Union in 2014-2015 also calls for refugees who are victims of violence based on [their] sexual orientation or gender identity to be given support ‘at all stages of the migration process’, including measures such as immediate relocation if their safety cannot be guaranteed, mental health support and immediate gender identity recognition for the duration of asylum procedures.

See also our briefing on The rights of LGBTI people in the European Union.

Written by Joanna Apap, Eulalia Claros and Maria-Margarita Mentzelopoulou,

Areas targeted by main migration funding programmes

Funding instruments in the field of migration and asylum management cover, on the one hand, different EU policy fields, such as enlargement, neighbourhood, development cooperation and common foreign and security policy, as well as, on the other, international projects such as those managed by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) at a more global level. The legal basis of each funding instrument provides for the range of its geographical and thematic coverage. In addition, interaction takes place between the different areas covered by the thematic and geographic programmes and other external financing Instruments. The funding landscape changed in 2013 with the new Financial Regulation applicable to the EU budget. This enabled the European Commission to create and administer Union Trust Funds in the field of external action, from 2014: these include multi-donor trust funds for emergency, post-emergency or thematic actions such as the Bêkou and the Madad Fund. The European Parliament welcomed this development in an April 2013 resolution, considering that it would allow the EU to raise the visibility of its external action and to have greater control over the delivery chain of such funds.
Following the Valletta Summit in November 2015, an Emergency Trust Fund for stability, to address the root causes of irregular migration and displaced persons in Africa was created. To meet the increased migratory challenges, EU funding for the 2015-2018 period has more than doubled. More-over, the crisis in Syria and in the neighbouring region led to the creation of different funding instruments, by the EU and the international community. EU agencies active externally are also funded through the EU budget. For the 2015-2018 period contributions for support to such EU agencies and their operations reaches €1.4 billion. Funding is one of the main instruments for EU cooperation with third countries in the area of migration, asylum and borders.

This paper aims to map and clarify the different funding instruments established for migration-related projects, financed by the EU as well as by the international community.

Read this briefing on ‘Migration & asylum: Projects & funding‘ on the Think Tank pages of the European Parliament.

Written by Elena Lazarou,

© fotomaster / Fotolia

The promotion of global peace and security, following the model of its own peace project, is a fundamental goal and central pillar of the external action of the European Union (EU). Both within and beyond the EU, there is a widespread expectation among citizens that the Union will deliver results in this crucial area. Yet, the deteriorating security environment of the past decade has posed significant challenges. Following the release of its Global Strategy in 2016, and in line with the wording and spirit of the Lisbon Treaty, the EU has been intensifying its work in pursuit of peace and security in a number of key policy areas. In this respect, 2017 was a year of implementation and of transforming vision into action.

The world has become more peaceful in recent centuries. Europe in particular has experienced the longest period of peace in its history, not least thanks to a regional network of international organisations, of which the EU is a major example. Today, peace is defined in a positive way, not only as ‘the absence of war’, but also in terms of the quality of government, the free flow of information and low levels of corruption. In this context, out of the 39 most peaceful countries in the world, based on the 2017 Global Peace Index of the Institute for Economics and Peace, 22 are EU Member States. Nevertheless, the instability that characterises the geopolitical environment has translated into a sharp deterioration of peace in the EU’s neighbourhood and has challenged its internal security.

The over-arching objectives of the EU guide it in all facets of its activity in this area, including common foreign and security policy (CFSP); democracy support; development cooperation; economic, financial and technical cooperation; humanitarian aid; trade; and neighbourhood policy. As foreseen in the Lisbon Treaty, the 2016 Global Strategy introduced several elements to refine and improve the EU’s efforts, including the promotion of resilience and capacity-building in the world. This approach is reflected in the EU’s external policies.

Read also: ‘Peace and Security in 2018: An evaluation of EU peacebuilding in the Western Balkans‘.

As far as development is concerned, a significant share of EU aid goes to fragile states and to issues related to securing peace. In 2017 the EU committed to a ‘new consensus on development’, which emphasises the role of development cooperation in preventing violent conflicts, in mitigating their consequences and in aiding recovery from them. The new consensus clearly focuses on fragile and conflict affected countries, which are the main victims of humanitarian crises. On the ground, the EU has been able to strengthen the nexus between security, development and humanitarian aid through the implementation of comprehensive strategies, for example in the Horn of Africa and in the Sahel.

With the launching of Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO), the European Defence Fund and other such initiatives, 2017 saw remarkable progress towards a more autonomous and efficient EU common security and defence policy (CSDP). Of all the policy fields in the area of peace and security, this is the one that has enjoyed the greatest support from EU citizens (75 %) for more EU spending. Through the CSDP, the EU also runs 16 missions and operations, making it one of the UN’s main partners in peacekeeping. These elements of ‘hard power’, together with the EU’s long-standing experience in the practice of soft power, form the backbone of its action for peace and security.

Looking to the future, the complexity of the global environment is expected to increase.  At the same time, an analysis of ongoing EU legislation indicates that the EU is aiming to strengthen its presence and efficiency in the area of peace and security. The discussions on the funding of specific initiatives in the context of the 2019 annual budget and the post-2020 multiannual financial framework (MFF) will focus on streamlining the EU’s various programmes and instruments, allowing for sufficient flexibility to respond to unforeseen threats, as well as implementing innovative financial instruments. Underlying the quest for flexibility, efficiency and innovation, is the strategic goal to empower the EU in its global role as a promoter of peace and security, while adapting to the new realities of the international order.

Read this study on ‘Peace and Security in 2018: Overview of EU action and outlook for the future‘ on the Think Tank pages of the European Parliament.