Brussels has put itself on a collision course with the Polish and Hungarian governments after proposing to criminalise hate speech against LGBTQ+ people under EU law and secure recognition of same-sex partnerships across the bloc’s borders.
Věra Jourová, a European commissioner, said the measures followed new “worrying trends”, with the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights reporting that 43% of LGBT people had declared feeling discriminated against in 2019, compared with 37% in 2012.
The proposals were announced as part of the commission’s first ever strategy to secure equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, non-binary, intersex and queer people.
Jourová cited attacks on Pride marches and the move by more than 100 Polish municipalities to declare themselves as “LGBT-free zones” as further evidence of increased discrimination. A so-called “LGBT ideology” was recently described as “more destructive than communist indoctrination” by Poland’s president, Andrzej Duda.
Jourová said the commission was also following events in Hungary, where a constitutional amendment was proposed this week by Viktor Orbán’s rightwing government to ensure that only heterosexual married couples can adopt children.
The Hungarian government’s legislative initiatives, announced without any consultation, were justified on the grounds that “new, modern ideologies in the western world raise doubt about the creation of the male and female sex, and endanger the right of children to have healthy development”.
Jourová, a former minister in the Czech Republic, said such claims belonged to “the authoritarian playbook and it does not have a place in the European Union”.
“Constitutional reforms should always be subject to a large inclusive and public debate, not only debate in political circles,” she said. “It needs to have enough time to … achieve the necessary checks and balances. The family law is a member state competence. We fully respect it. However, when applying national law, member states must also respect their international human rights obligations and apply EU law.”
Under its five-year strategy, the commission wants to extend the list of EU crimes to cover hate crime, including that motivated by homophobia, and to bring forward legislation on the mutual recognition of parenthood in cross-border situations.
As it stands, only 21 member states recognise some form of same-sex partnership and only 14 of those allow adoption by same-sex couples, leading to problems for those who move from one EU country to another.
“All of a sudden they will stop being your child once you cross the border,” Jourová said. “This is unacceptable … If one is a parent in one country, one is a parent in all countries … This is not ideology. This is not about being men or women. This is about love.”
An extension of the list of EU crimes and mutual recognition of parenthood will require unanimity of the 27 member states, which would appear unlikely given the attitudes of the current Polish and Hungarian governments.
The commissioner said, however, that Brussels would in the meantime be more vigilant in ensuring that EU funds were not provided to public authorities who failed to respect the equality of its citizens.
The EU’s executive branch enraged the government in Warsaw after withholding funding from six towns in Poland that had declared themselves “LGBT-free” but it was suggested that such sanctions could become more commonplace.
The European parliament and the German presidency of the EU commission, representing the member states, recently agreed on a mechanism to link budget payments to governments to continue respect for EU fundamental values such as freedom, democracy and equality.
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