European Integration and LGBTI Activism: Partners in Realising Change?

Abstract

Today, there can no longer be any doubt that the promotion of LGBTI human rights is an important part of the EU’s enlargement and foreign policy. The 2012 EU Strategic Framework on Human Rights and Democracy adopted by the European Council solidified the EU commitment to human rights by providing a clear path on how the EU wishes to promote human rights globally. Keeping with the commitments laid out in this strategic framework, in 2013 the Council adopted a comprehensive set of guidelines on the promotion of LGBTI human rights in foreign policy. This policy document, unanimously adopted by all member states, unequivocally placed LGBTI issues at the core of what the EU represents. Moreover, in 2013 and 2014, the European Commission made the promotion of LGBTI human rights a priority within the enlargement policy (see The EU enlargement and gay politics, London, 2016), and its annual strategies called in for ‘a zero-tolerance approach to hate speech, violence and intimidation’ and for ‘strong leadership from the authorities to bring about a change in the frequently hostile societal attitudes towards lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people’ (Enlargement Strategy and Main Challenges 2014–2015, 2014, Final, p. 15). It also urged accession countries ‘to take measures to counter stereotypes and misinformation, including within the education system’, reiterating that ‘religious or cultural values cannot be invoked to justify any form of discrimination’ (p. 15). These developments support the common notion that the promotion of LGBTI human rights has become increasingly interconnected within the European Union network (see also LGBT activism and the making of Europe: A rainbow Europe? Basingstoke, England, 2014).