EU hopefuls told they must tackle gay rights
February 12th, 2010 by Chloe.Setter
The European Parliament has made it clear to candidate countries wishing to join the European Union that they must provide genuine protection to LGBT minorities.
Three candidate countries, Croatia, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Turkey, were all told that the protection of minorities of any kind was a non-negotiable condition to securing access.
The European Parliament in Strasbourg adopted reports on the countries’ accession to the EU, making it clear that addressing LGBT rights were imperative for those wishing to join.
Ulrike Lunacek MEP, co-president of the European Parliament’s Intergroup on LGBT rights, said: “We have reaffirmed that anti-discrimination standards must apply in candidate countries.”
The group’s other co-president, Michael Cashman, claimed the accession criteria was now “crystal clear”.
”Minorities must be protected from discrimination as laid out in Article 19 of the Treaty - and that includes sexual orientation,” he added.
In its report on Crotia, the parliament discussed its concern about the 2009 de facto ban on the holding of the capital’s Zagreb Pride.
Regarding the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, it claimed that proposed anti-discrimination legislation in the country did not cover sexual orientation and gender identity as grounds of discrimination. It called on the government to bring its anti-discrimination laws into line with EU standards.
The progress report for Turkey highlighted shortcomings of its current penal code, which it said allows for the persecution of LGBT minorities.
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