The Commission’s new LGBTIQ+ Equality Strategy 2026-2030: Progress Made, But Intersex Rights Overlooked
Yesterday, on the 8th of October 2025, the European Commission published its second EU LGBTIQ+ Equality Strategy. OII Europe welcomes the adoption of the Strategy, which was committed to in the mission letter of EU Commissioner for Equality, Preparedness and Crisis Management, Hadja Lahbib.
The new and second EU LGBTIQ Equality Strategy is structured along three pillars; empower, protect and engage. The measures set out in the 24-page Strategy show that there is momentum from the Commission to continue working towards the creation of a Union of Equality and the safeguarding of LGBTIQ persons’ rights across the EU; work that was already firmly committed to in the previous Strategy which ran from 2020-2025 – an EU first and huge milestone for intersex rights at the time.
However, this new Strategy, despite the important progress of the last years, comes at a moment of global and EU-wide backlash against equality, human rights and democracy. LGBTIQ persons, and specifically intersex, trans and non-binary persons are experiencing ever-increasing levels of violence and hate (online and offline) and are being used as scapegoats for societal problems. In some Member States, their very existence is being questioned and effectively erased by constitutional and legislative amendments which breach EU law. These rollbacks severely threaten the collective security of all citizens across our Union, as well as our shared core values. While the renewal of this Strategy shows a commitment from the Commission to continue working towards equality and the fundamental rights of all LGBTIQ persons in the EU, the measures set out in the Strategy reveal a lack of ambition to step up to the plate in the face of this backlash.
This is especially concerning given that most of the previous Strategy’s commitments on intersex rights have not been delivered on yet, namely the failure of the Commission to publish the Study on intersex people in the EU, the Recommendation on harmful practices against women and girls, as well as its failure to organise a good practice exchange among EU Member States on ending the harmful practice of intersex genital mutilation (IGM).
“While the renewal of the EU LGBTIQ Strategy does send a signal of hope to LGBTIQ persons across Europe, we find the lack of targeted measures aimed directly at combating fundamental rights violations and discrimination experienced by intersex persons particularly worrying,” says Dan Christian Ghattas, Executive Director of OII Europe. “We therefore especially welcome the Commission’s commitment to increase its cooperation with the Council of Europe, in the light of the Committee of Ministers Recommendation on equal rights for intersex persons, a new comprehensive standard on intersex protection that was adopted two days ago on the 7th of October.”
Despite these shortcomings, we celebrate the Commission’s decision to allocate 3.6 billion Euros to the new Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values+ (CERV) strand of the AgoraEU programme, which will fund organisations and projects promoting equality and non-discrimination, including but not limited to LGBTQ and intersex rights.
“Data from the latest FRA survey clearly shows that intersex people are experiencing increased levels of violence and discrimination in multiple areas of life, something the Commission itself acknowledges in the Strategy”, says Kristian Ranđelović, Co-chair of the OII Europe, “We therefore celebrate the fact that the Commission has stepped up to the plate and chosen to increase financial support to civil society organisations who play a crucial role in safeguarding the rights of intersex people, in a context where funding is increasingly being cut and political attacks against public funding of civil society are growing.”
Intersex and LGBTQ+ persons experience multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination. In times of worsening economic and political instability, it is well documented that these intersecting vulnerabilities are being exacerbated.1 The Strategy commits to use intersectionality as a cross-cutting principle, and we particularly welcome the strong focus put on children and youth.
OII Europe and other LGBTIQ+ umbrella organisations have repeatedly insisted on the urgency of all EU Directorate Generals working together in order for the Commission to efficiently tackle issues of inequality and discrimination as a united body. We welcome the fact that the new Strategy mainstreams equality by highlighting the full range of existing EU strategies (such as the Gender Equality Strategy, EU Strategy on the Rights of the Child, the Anti-Poverty Strategy and the Strategy for the rights of persons with disabilities), EC recommendations, EU agendas, action plans, platforms for exchange and support networks and how they remain relevant for advancing LGBTIQ rights. This cross-sectoral approach is an important tool that the Commission can and must use to foster resilience and ensure that issues of discrimination are tackled from multiple fronts.
Some key action points of the Strategy most relevant for intersex rights include the commitment of the European Commission to:
- Explore ways to strengthen the criminal law framework for combating hate speech and hate crime online amidst worrying and increasingly levels of violence experienced by LGBTIQ people
- Tackle the issue of online hate, including an action plan on cyberbullying
- Preparing a recommendation on equality data, to improve the collection, analysis and use of equality data, in cooperation with the Member States
- Work with the Council presidencies and Member States to reach a unanimous agreement on the Equal Treatment Directive, which has been put back on the table
- Launch a new “LGBTIQ+ Policy Forum” where civil society, social partners and academia can address emerging challenges and exchange on the implementation of the Strategy
- Carry out a study on housing inequality and discrimination, whose findings will feed into the European affordable housing plan
- Publish a report on the application of the Employment Equality Directive in collaboration with the EU Platform Diversity Charters and the expert group on LGBTIQ+ equality
Furthermore, the Commission has spotlighted the topic of conversion practices in the new Strategy. We welcome the fact that the serious issue of conversion practices, which according to the latest FRA survey impacts a large percentage of LGBTIQ persons, is being given the attention it merits. However, it remains to be seen whether intersex persons and the ways in which they also experience conversion practices, aimed at altering their sex characteristics, gender expression or gender identity will be included in the planned study. In addition, we hope that the specific experiences of intersex people, many of whom are being subjected to intersex genital mutilation will not be overlooked in the implementation of the new strategy. IGM is a harmful practice carried out in medical settings, as highlighted by the first LGBTIQ Equality Strategy 2020-2025.
If the Commission, as Guardian of the Treaties, and the EU as a whole is to truly be “the beacon, the lighthouse that protects freedom and equality”, as stated by Commissioner Lahbib during the press conference, then they will need to be firm in their mission to not let the light burn out in times when Member States are violating EU law, and LGBTIQ people are paying the price with their lives, their freedom and their security. OII Europe firmly commits to continue supporting the work of the European Commission, and to remain steadfast in our mission to carry forward the demands of the European intersex community.
- See OII Europe’s Covid 19 Survey report revealing the heightened vulnerability of intersex people during the Covid-19 pandemic: https://www.oiieurope.org/covid-19-survey-report/ ↩︎
