Homophobia and Discrimination on

Executive Summary
Background
The principle of equal treatment constitutes a fundamental value of the European Union.
The Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union is the first international
human rights instrument to explicitly prohibit discrimination on the basis of “sexual
orientation” in its Article 21 (1):
“Any discrimination based on any ground such as sex, race, colour, ethnic or social
origin, genetic features, language, religion or belief, political or other opinion,
membership of a national minority, property, birth, disability, age or sexual orientation
shall be prohibited”.
Until the Treaty of Amsterdam, the focus of EU legal action in this respect was on
preventing discrimination on the grounds of nationality <strong>and</strong> sex. Article 13 of the
Amsterdam Treaty granted the Community new powers to combat discrimination on the
grounds of sex, racial or ethnic origin, religion or belief, disability, age or sexual
orientation. Consequently, two new EC Directives were enacted in the area of antidiscrimination:
the Racial Equality Directive <strong>and</strong> the Employment Equality Directive.
However, protection against discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation is only
provided by the Employment Equality Directive in the area of employment <strong>and</strong> work.
In June 2007 the European Parliament asked the Fundamental Rights Agency to
develop a comprehensive, comparative report on the situation regarding homophobia
<strong>and</strong> discrimination based on sexual orientation in the Member States of the European
Union with the aim of assisting the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice <strong>and</strong> Home
Affairs of the European Parliament, when discussing the need for a Directive covering all
grounds of discrimination listed in Article 13 of the EC Treaty for all sectors referred to in
the Racial Equality Directive 2000/43/EC. These sectors are education, social security,
healthcare, <strong>and</strong> access to goods <strong>and</strong> services.
In response the Agency prepared <strong>and</strong> launched a major project in December 2007
composed, following its socio-legal interdisciplinary methodology, of two parts. The first
part, published in June 2008, contains a comprehensive, comparative legal analysis of
the situation in the European Union Member States. The comparative legal analysis was
based on 27 national legal studies covering all EU Member States drafted on the basis
of detailed guidelines provided by the FRA. The second part, which is the present
publication, is a comprehensive, comparative social analysis, based on available data
throughout the European Union, as well as fieldwork research consisting of interviews
Part II - The Social Situation
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