The European Parliament Intergroup on Gay and Lesbian Rights

Welcome to our February Round up. As usual for more information, please visit our website:
www.gayandlesbianrightsintergroup.org

In this Issue…

• News from the EP
• News from the Intergroup
• News from the outside world
  

News from the EP

• Free movement of EU: In January and February discussions were held in the LIBE Committee on the free movement issue. The general opinion was to accept the Council proposals. However, MEP Joke Swiebel has asked the legal services of the EP in order to have an opinion on the concrete consequences of the Council proposal when saying "Member States shall, in accordance with their own national legislation, facilitate entry and residence of any other family members not falling under the definition of Article 2, point 2”. On 19 February the report was voted in LIBE and the Council common position was adopted as such. This means that for the first time in EU-law, registered partnerships should be recognised at least by those countries that have such partnerships in their national laws. Furthermore the problem of unmarried partners that have not entered in a registered partnership is recognised as a political problem, which should be resolved by the abovementioned provision. It is finally up to the European Court of Justice to decide the real content of this provsion.
  
  Last 21 January, the Parliament's Citizens' Rights Committee held a public seminar on the human rights situation in the EU in 2003. The aim was to hear the views of human rights experts as part of preparations for Parliament's annual report on the human rights situation within the EU. During this seminar, Ailsa SPINDLER, Director of the International Lesbian and Gay Association, spoke about discrimination against homosexuals and contended that the non-recognition of same sex couples legally recognised in their state of origin by other Member States was an unacceptable obstacle to the right to free movement within the EU.
  
  
• Harbour-Medina report on the reform of the EC staff regulations (see earlier issues for more info). The report was discussed in the Legal Affairs Committee on Thursday, 19th February. Unfortunetely, the amendment on the criteria to recognise unmarried partnerships, which was included in the report of the EP in first reading, got lost in the debate between Council, Commission and Parliament and is not included in the current adopted report of Harbour & Medina.
  
  It is worth mentioning, as an example of good practice, that last 29th January the UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, took a step towards the recognition of same-sex partnerships by giving equal rights to partners of UN-staff, including same-sex partners, under the only condition that their partnership must be recognised in their country of origin. .
  
  
• On 10 February 2004, the EP voted and adopted resolution on the “EU's rights, priorities and recommendations for the 60th Session of the UN Commission on Human Rights in Geneva" (15th March to the 23rd April 2004). The European Parliament calls specifically on the EU Presidency to act in favour of the Brazilian initiative on discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity by signing and gathering other countries' support for the resolution tabled by Brazil, and to ensure that the issue stays on the agenda.
  

News from the Intergroup

• Wider Europe: On 31 March our Intergroup will have a meeting in Strasbourg to discuss the European Neighbourhood Policy or "Wider Europe". The EU has stated that after enlargement they intend “to promote stability and prosperity beyond the new borders of the Union” and “to work in partnership to develop a zone of prosperity and a friendly neighbourhood – a ‘ring of friends’ - with whom the EU enjoys close, peaceful and co-operative relations”.
  The Intergroup would like to discuss how the EU monitors human rights in these countries, how the situation of LGBT people is and whether there are any plans to have cooperation agreements that mention the need to put in place anti-discrimination legislation.
  
  The Commission, in its strategy towards a Wider Europe, has decided that Ukraine and Moldova are priority countries for 2004, therefore we have decided to take Moldova as a case study for this meeting. Speakers are Jan Marinus Wiersma, MEP and chair of the EP-Delegation for relations with Ukraine, Moldova and Belarus, Pascalina Napoletano, MEP and rapporteur on the EP report 'Wider Europe - Neighbourhood: A New Framework for Relations with our Eastern and Southern Neighbours”, Rutger Wissels, Director of the EC Task force European Neighbourhood Policy and Maxim Anmeghichean, director of the Information Center for Gender, a Moldavian NGO working on gay rights.
  
  
• Implementation of Employement Framework directive: Our latest information on the state of transposition of Directive 2000/78/EC is that legislation is in force in 8 countries (Italy, Spain, France, UK (apart from Gibraltar), Portugal, Sweden, Finland and Belgium (but not all the regional/linguistic communities). Letters of formal notice have been sent for non-communication of all the measures necessary to transpose the Directive to Germany, Austria, Denmark, Netherlands, Ireland, Luxembourg and Greece. The United Kingdom, Belgium and Finland also got one because their legislation does not cover 100 % of their respective territories. Italy, France and Sweden have notified their legislation and Spain and Portugal have sent their legislation informally, but the Commission has not yet examined it.
  
  
• Green Paper on EU anti-discrimination policies: According to our sources, it is still at quite an embryonic stage. The Paper will outline various questions and options in relation to the future of anti-discrimination policy, and will ask for contributions on these issues. The time for those contributions is expected to be around next April, and it will be open for several months.
  
  
• Homophobia in Macedonia: The Intergroup has written to Commissioner Patten regarding the homophobic comments made by Macedonian’s President, Boris Trajkovski, to an American publication regarding a campaign for the promotion of the rights of sexual minorities, funded by the Swedish and the US governments.
  This campaign was called “Face the Diversity - Campaign to Promote the Righst of Sexual Minorities”. Mr Trajkovski said that “U.S. taxpayer funds should not be used to promote alternative lifestyles in my country, and I do not believe that most Americans would appreciate this. We have many more pressing issues that the money could be used for. This is deeply offensive to most people in Macedonia which represents a very conservative mix of the Orthodox Christian and Muslim faiths.”
  
  Just for information we can say that in 2002, the Swedish Helsinki Committee and the Foundation Open Society of Macedonia did a comprehensive survey of the attitudes toward homosexuality of the four largest ethnic Macedonian communities — Macedonian, Albanian, Turkish, and Roma. The committee's conclusion is glaring: 64 percent of Macedonians think homosexuality is a disease, only 19 percent don't, and the rest are "not certain."
  Another 60 percent believe it is also "immoral." As recently as 1996, homosexuality was a criminal offense, and nearly 35 percent of Macedonians believe that it should continue to be punishable by law. On the personal scale, only 20.5 percent of Macedonians surveyed would accept the homosexuality of a family member.
  
  
• 60th UN Commission on Human Rights and Brazil resolution on sexual orientation discrimination: The Intergroup has followed very closely all the developments around the EP resolution and the work many organisations are doing in order to have this resolution passed during this year’s session.
  
  First of all, we would like to thank from these lines the Green and the Radical groups of the European Parliament for all the work they have done around the EP-resolution.
  
  The Intergroup has sent a letter to all EU foreign affairs ministers asking them to co-sponsor this resolution. We also plan to approach the members of the EP-delegation to this year’s Commission, once we know its composition.
  
  The Intergroup attended, on 3 February, the meeting of the EU- Human Rights Contact Group, also dedicated to the 60th UN Commission on Human Rights. We are happy to inform you that out of what was said by the main speakers, Mr. John D. Biggar (Head of the Human Rights Unit of the Irish Department for Foreign Affairs and current Chair of the Council working group on human rights) and Mr. Elmar Brok (Chair of the EP Committee on Foreign Affairs), we can assure you that, at least, the issue of sexual orientation discrimination is high placed on the agenda.
  
  We would also like to take the opportunity to reiterate the petition to sign up ILGA's online petition to Support the Brazilian resolution http://www.brazilianresolution.com
  
  

News from the Outside World

• Historic decision in Spain: Last Friday, 13 February, the Family court of Pamplona, ruling under the Navarra’s partnership law, which allows joint adoption procedures, gave the right of the adoption of twin sisters to the partner of their biological mother. In this way, both women become legally the mothers of the twins, who were conceived by artificial insemination. This is the first time in Spain that a Court rules in favour of two lesbian women. This ruling is definitive and cannot be contested.
  
  According to the Spanish Federation of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender (FEGLT), this is an historic ruling that, for the first time, protects the rights of children born and educated within homosexual families.
  
  The association “Judges for Democracy” also welcomed this ruling and said that it was the right decision given the fact that in European law, which also valid in Spain, this was foreseen long ago. They also mentioned as an example of change, the January ruling of the European Court of Justice, which said that transsexuals must have equal access to marriage and pension rights.
  
  
• The city of San Francisco, in an open challenge to Californian law, performed at least 15 same-sex weddings last Thursday 12 February, and issued about a dozen more marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples. The decision, taken by San Francisco's mayor, came as lawmakers in Massachusetts continued to debate a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage in that state, where the nation's first legally recognized same-sex weddings are set to take place this spring under a ruling from the Massachusetts high court.
  
  The mayor also stated that state constitution that bars discrimination against people based on their sexual orientation. But a court challenge has been mounted based on a 2000 ballot initiative approved by voters that declares California recognizes only marriages between a man and woman. It seems as of 16 February, more than 140 couples have been married.
  
  * Egalité has informed us about the extension of the scope of same-sex marriage in Belgium. The Belgian Minister of Justice, Mrs. Onkelinx, announced the widening of the scope of same-sex marriage. From 6 February 2004 it will be possible for same-sex couples to marry in Belgium, provided one of the members of the couple is Belgian or legally resident in Belgium. EGALITE had written to Mrs. Onkelinx earlier about this issue.
  
  However, as EGALITE explains, there is still pending the issue of whether same-sex marriages will be recognised by the country of origin of non-Belgians. For example, Italy may not recognise such a marriage concluded in Belgium by an Italian national.
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• On 13 January, the State Council of Luxembourg published its opinion on the draft bill relating to partnerships. After many months waiting, it seems that in its opinion, the State Council is in favour of opening up marriage to same-sex couples, and it also seems that they will use Belgium as a model for it.
  * On January 18, in an urgent action, Amnesty International denounced the attack suffered by the Chilean citizen, Rodrigo López Barrera, chair of the travesty’ rights organisation “Traves Chile of Aconcagua", and who was shot in the street.
  Previously to this attack, Rodrigo had received murder threats due to his involvement in the denouncing and investigation of attacks against travestites in the area (Aconcagua Province). In 2002, 2 other travestites were killed in unexplained circumstances in the area.
  
  
  
  We are already working in our next issue, which will see the light by April!