Last week top politicians from all five main political groups came together to express their solid commitment to LGBTI people in the Come Out panel, organized by ILGA-Europe. Each five made clear that the time of discrimination is over: the European Union will stand by LGBTI people in each Member State and that in the future, we will see a lot more proactive attitude from the European institutions.

Guy Verhofstadt, chair of the liberal group (ALDE) and a nominee for President of the European Commission, told the audience that the next Commission will be expected to put their full weight behind the human rights agenda, including the LGBT roadmap. “Real commitment to human rights should be the condition of becoming a Commissioner,” Verhofstadt emphasized.

Hannes Swoboda, president of the Socialists and Democrats (S&D), echoed this: “The European Commission is not here to lament the existing problems in Member States. They need to be in the forefront of fighting for human rights. LGBT issues are a question of basic human rights, and respecting those rights should be part of the criteria when considering possible new EU members.”  

Other panelists Marije Cornelissen (Greens), Sirpa Pietikäinen (EPP) and Gilles Garnier (European Left) also highlighted the need for active civil society involvement to remind and push politicians to the right direction. As Pietikäinen reminded, human rights cannot be set aside because of the subsidiarity principle. Human rights are not something you can give to some and deny from others. Therefore active support for LGBTI and sexual rights is also an EU issue.