Answer given by Ms Dalli on behalf of the European Commission

21.12.2021

The Commission’s 2020-2025 Strategy for lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, non-binary, intersex and queer (LGBTIQ) equality[1], adopted on 12 November 2020, sets out measures to protect the rights of LGBTIQ people in all the Member States.

The strategy, which includes as one of its four main pillars ‘ensuring LGBTIQ people’s safety’, will be implemented, inter alia, by reinforcing legal protection for LGBTIQ people against hate crime, hate speech and violence.

As announced in the strategy, in December 2021, the Commission presented an initiative to extend the list of ‘EU crimes’ in Article 83(1) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union to hate speech and hate crime.

A Council decision in this regard will enable the Commission to propose in the future minimum standards to criminalise hate speech and hate crime on other grounds beyond racism and xenophobia, including against LGBTIQ people.

The Commission will continue to monitor the situation of LGBTIQ people in the EU and to make sure that, when implementing EC law and EU-funded programmes, the principle of non-discrimination is fully respected.

The Union recognises the rights, freedoms and principles set out in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU. However, according to Article 51(1) of the Charter, its provisions are addressed to the Member States only when they implement Union law.

Outside the scope of EC law, it is for Member States to ensure that fundamental rights are effectively respected and protected in accordance with their national law and international human rights obligations, including those deriving from the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms of the Council of Europe, to which all Member States are parties, including Bulgaria.

• [1] COM(2020) 698 final.