On 13 September, the European Parliament adopted a resolution on the rights of LGBTI people in the EU (adopted by 387 votes to 161, with 123 abstentions), which states that members of the community should be able to fully exercise their rights, including the right to free movement anywhere in the EU. The Bulgarian MEPs who supported the resolution are:
The whole group of the MRF, consisting of Atije Aliyeva-Veli, Ilkhan Kyuchyuk, Iskra Mihaylova;
BSP, consisting of - Elena Yoncheva and Sergei Stanishev;
Radan Kanev from DSB.
Voted AGAINST:
VMRO: Angel Dzhambazki and Andrei Slabakov;
GERB and SDS: Alexander Yordanov, Eva Maydel and Emil Radev.
HOLDED: Andrey Kovachev and Andrey Novakov from GERB.
Ivo Hristov, Petar Vitanov and Tsvetelina Penkova, who are representatives of BSP, did not participate in the voting.
The resolution focuses on the rights of same-sex families and their free movement within the Union
The resolution states that marriages or registered partnerships contracted in one Member State should be recognised in the same way in other Member States, and that same-sex spouses and partners should be treated in the same way as different-sex couples.
Following the European Court of Justice's decision in Coman & Hamilton, which found that the "spouses" provisions of the Free Movement Directive also apply to same-sex couples, the Commission should take enforcement action against Romania, where the government has not updated national legislation after receiving binding recommendations from the Court as early as 2019.
Through the resolution, MEPs call on national governments of EU Member States to consider the persons named on a child's birth certificate as his or her legal parents, and to take steps to ensure that children do not become stateless when their families move between Member States.
Parliament is calling for further action to be taken against Hungary and Poland, following the European Commission's announcement on 15 July that it was launching legal proceedings against the two Member States.
With regard to Hungary, the European Parliament considers that the Hungarian anti-LGBTI law, which was adopted in mid-summer 2021, prohibiting the dissemination of information in schools about different sexual behaviour, as well as the discussion of gender reassignment among minors, violates the right to freedom of expression, as well as the provisions of two European directives.
The deteriorating situation of the law and the treatment of the LGBTI community are the reasons why the Commission has launched a criminal procedure against Poland. Since 2019, there have been more than 100 "LGBT-free zones" declared in Poland, where local municipalities should refrain from promoting tolerance towards LGBTI people and calling for the withdrawal of financial support from organisations promoting non-discrimination and equality. The zones are part of widespread discrimination, attacks and hate speech against LGBTI people coming from public authorities, the current president and pro-government media.
The resolutions of the European Parliament are not binding and do not constitute law. They are only advisory.
It has been more than 5 months since the Advocate General's opinion on the Baby Sarah case, but there is still no final decision on the case from the European Court of Justice. The mothers of the child and the team of LGBT Youth Action remain in anticipation of the Court's binding instructions to put an end to Bulgaria's discriminatory practice against LGBTI families and their children. #EqualRightsForAllChildren
You can read more about Baby Sarah's case here: https://www.deystvie.org/post/babysara
The project is funded by the Rights, Equality and Citizenship Programme (2014-2020) of the European Union.