Although it considers that they are “harmful” and “have no place” in the EU, the European Commission will not propose, as more than a million European citizens had demanded, specific legislation to prohibit conversion therapies for LGTBIQ+ people at European level, a controversial but still approved in 19 Member States.
Instead, it will simply present, sometime in 2027, a “recommendation” urging countries to take the step and outlaw these “harmful interventions that can result in lasting psychological and physical harm” in their national legislation.
They are prohibited, to varying degrees, in Germany, Belgium, Cyprus, Spain, France, Greece, Malta and Portugal. In the remaining 19 Member States there is no prohibition or specific legal framework to restrict such practices. There are also bans in Norway and Iceland, as well as non-European countries such as Canada, New Zealand and Ecuador.
Brussels’ response, known on the eve of the transphobia and biphobia event that will be celebrated this Sunday, throws cold water on the more than one million Europeans who had supported a European Citizens’ Initiative (ICE) demanding that Brussels propose a “binding legal ban” on conversion therapies.
Even so, the Commissioner for Equality, Hadja Lahbib, has assured that Brussels’ response is a “powerful signal” in support of the LGTBIQ+ community. “The Commission sends a very clear and unambiguous message to each EU Member State: ban conversion practices now,” he stated at a press conference in Brussels.
The applicants, relying on the fact that the United Nations classifies these controversial practices as torture, demanded that they be included in the list of Eurocrimes – a special category of serious crimes with a cross-border dimension among which are terrorism, organized crime, trafficking in human beings, illicit trafficking in drugs or weapons or corruption, among others – or that the equality directive be amended to include the prohibition of conversion therapies. They also called for a review of the victims’ rights directive to include “minimum standards on the rights, support and protection of victims of conversion practices”.
European citizens’ initiatives are an instrument that allows, if one million European citizens from at least a quarter of the EU Member States sign an initiative asking the Commission to propose legislation in areas within its competence, the European Executive must respond to this request and, if it does not do so, it must justify why.
This specific initiative managed to gather the required signatures in just one week, as the European Parliament recalled when the preliminary protocol debate scheduled before the Commission’s response was held in March. Furthermore, it was supported by the repeated condemnations of these practices by the European Parliament in the last decade. In January, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe also urged the member countries of the pan-European organization based in Strasbourg to provide for criminal sanctions and based on a clear and exhaustive definition of prohibited practices, as well as to establish monitoring and reporting mechanisms.
A month later, it was the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) that recommended that the Commission “present a proposal for a legally binding ban on conversion practices in the EU” that prohibits “any activity that aims to change, repress or suppress a person’s sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression, as well as the advertising of such activities.”
In its argument for not taking these steps, Brussels recalls that expanding the list of Eurocrimes would previously require unanimity among the Member States, which is far from guaranteed. Furthermore, it considers that “it would not efficiently combat the phenomenon of conversion practices” because, having the cross-border dimension as a key element, it could only be applied to a “small portion” of these actions. Also amending the equality directive would require elusive unanimity.
Furthermore, the Commission adds, “imposing a ban on conversion practices would not fit into the cross-cutting approach and scope of this proposal.” On the other hand, it does not see it necessary to amend the victims’ rights directive since, it points out, “to the extent that these practices are criminalized under national law, the provisions of that directive apply to the victims of said crimes.”
According to Commissioner Lahbib, betting on legislation that requires unanimity would have greatly delayed any action, when what is required, she maintains, is that pressure be put on countries that have not yet banned these practices. “Rather than falling into discussions that would have taken us to a horizon of 10 or 15 years, we have preferred this recommendation, which is a historical act, a legal act that indicates the position of the Commission,” he defended.
For Brussels, the “recommendation” that it will present next year “will achieve the main objectives” of the citizens’ initiative by “recognizing the key role that Member States have in this area and focusing on supporting them to ban conversion practices, encouraging national action to extend the legal ban throughout the EU.” In addition, the first edition of the “LGTBIQ+ policy forum” to be held in Brussels before the end of the year will focus on conversion therapies.
“These practices have no place in our Union. The EU proudly supports the LGTBIQ+ community and reaffirms its vision of a Union of Equality, a place where each and every one can live freely, openly and authentically,” said the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, in a statement.
