The fundamental rights of LGBTI people need to be a core part of the accession process and EU institutions need to work with the authorities […]

Last year, Ukraine became a candidate country to join the European Union. But the country’s lack of LGBTI rights threatens to hinder the process As […]

Today, alongside five other international human rights organisations, we demand that the EU takes specific steps to ensure respect for the human rights of LGBTI […]

Although achieving EU membership can take several years, even decades, the accession process can already have a positive impact in LGBTI people in a candidate country. We speak to activists in the latest candidates, Ukraine and Moldova, and from Montenegro, which has been a candidate since 2010.

Published today, ILGA-Europe’s Annual Enlargement Review urgently calls on all EU enlargement countries to properly implement their anti-discrimination, hate crime and hate speech legal frameworks, in the context of rising anti-gender, anti-rights and far-right groups.

It is with great disappointment that ILGA-Europe and ERA received the news of the decision of the Constitutional Court of North Macedonia to repeal the Law on Prevention of and Protection against Discrimination on 14th May 2020.

While joining the EU could be key to helping make gender recognition and same-sex marriage a reality in Western Balkan countries, the blocking of Albania and North Macedonia’s next steps towards membership is having the opposite effect.

A letter sent today (27 January) to the Croatian Presidency by ILGA-Europe and the Equal Rights Association (ERA) stresses that opening accession talks with North Macedonia and Albania is critical in protecting LGBTI rights.

On 17 April 2018, the European Commission recommended launching accession talks with Albania and FYR Macedonia, both of which have up until now been candidates […]

This report, from 2001, maps the legal and social situation of lesbians and gay men in 13 candidate countries to EU accession. Three years after […]