EU publishes new LGBTIQ+ Equality Strategy, but is it fit for purpose?

The second EU LGBTIQ+ Equality Strategy for 2026-2030 was published today, but as Europe’s leading LGBTI organisation welcomes it, the question remains: is this strategy anywhere close to responding to the realities facing LGBTI people across Europe today?

Brussels, 08 October, 2025 – ILGA-Europe, Europe’s leading LGBTI organisation, welcomes today’s publication of the European Commission’s second LGBTIQ Equality Strategy for 2026–2030. At a time when LGBTI rights are increasingly under attack across Europe, it is vital that the European Commission maintains a strategic, whole-of-Commission approach, which engages all Directorates-General and integrates LGBTI equality across all areas of EU policy.

Launching the Strategy, Commissioner for Equality, Hadja Lahbib said: “In recent years we have fought hard for the freedom of LGBTQ+ people now we are going further to build a union that is more just more equal and free for all LGBTQ+people.”

However, the strategy clearly falls behind the ambition of the first EU LGBTIQ Equality Strategy 2020-2025, which proclaimed that “the European Union has to be at the forefront of efforts to better protect LGBTIQ people’s rights”.

The new strategy fails to meet the urgency of the moment and falls short of what is needed to ensure that the EU genuinely protects and advances the fundamental rights of LGBTI people. A fit-for-purpose Strategy to meet a shifting political landscape marked by regression on equality and fundamental rights should have included plans to tackle remaining legislative gaps on freedom of movement for all LGBTI people and their families and concrete plans on how to work towards fully protecting trans, intersex, and non-binary people in the EU law context. Further, and most crucially, it should have a firm commitment to use all tools at the Commission’s disposal when member states violate the fundamental rights of LGBTI people. Instead many of the actions in the strategy are likely to be cosmetic and fail to impact the lives of LGBTI people in any tangible way.

Deeply troubling picture

According to Katrin Hugendubel, ILGA-Europe’s Advocacy Director: “We are concerned that the level of ambition in this new strategy is noticeably lower than that of its predecessor. In an increasingly hostile political environment, the question arises: is this strategy robust enough to meet the growing threats faced by LGBTI people across the EU? And why has the EU given up wanting to be at the forefront of defending LGBTI rights at a time when it is more needed than ever?”

To name only one striking example of lagging behind is the fact that while the first strategy set out clear action on protecting intersex human rights, those commitments were never followed through, and the new strategy has no mention of at least still delivering the actions that remain unimplemented, namely a study on intersex human rights across the EU. And this at a time when the Council of Europe member states just yesterday adopted the first ever Europe-wide recommendation on the protection of intersex human rights.

Hugendubel continued: “Over the last five years, we have seen how political forces both within the EU institutions and at member state level have blocked key objectives set out in the previous EU LGBTI Strategy. The strategy published today appears to be pre-empting political backlash and avoiding what some might call ‘controversial’ issues.”

“This cautious approach will not protect LGBTI people who are facing increasing discrimination, violence and state-sponsored hostility across the EU. What we need now is political courage and a clear signal that equality is not negotiable. The Commission must use every tool it has – legal, political and financial – to defend LGBTI rights and ensure that the EU remains a space of freedom, safety and equality for everyone.”

Concern for its credibility

Living up to the EC’s objective of being a Union of Equality requires an ambitious proactive strategy, tackling hate and discrimination as well as ensuring full recognition and well-being of everyone in the LGBTIQ community, especially amid an organised and escalating pushback against LGBTI rights in times of organised backlash.

For the strategy to be credible, it must be backed by decisive action. In 2020, the EC acknowledged “a worrying trend in parts of the EU of more frequent anti-LGBTIQ incidents such as attacks on LGBTIQ public events including Pride marches”, and yet after another banned Pride march in Hungary just last weekend, we are still not seeing an infringement against the Hungarian Assembly Act.”

According to Katrin Hugendubel, ILGA-Europe’s Advocacy Director: “Ultimately, the impact of this strategy will depend on how the Commission acts in practice – how it uses its role as guardian of the Treaties, how it leverages existing legal tools, and ensures respect of CJEU case law protecting the fundamental rights of LGBTI people by all member States. Coherence and credibility depend not on declarations of intent, but on consistent enforcement of EU law and values.”

The strategy will still enable civil society to push EU institutions, however lackluster it might be, and ILGA-Europe will use every tool available in its arsenal. ILGA-Europe will also follow the implementation of the LGBTI Strategy closely and publish evaluations.

The European Commission’s second LGBTIQ Equality Strategy for 2026–2030 can be found here.