The European Parliament Intergroup on LGBTI Rights is an

intergroup Intergroups are formed of Members of the European Parliament from any political group and any committee, with a view to holding informal exchanges of views on particular subjects and promoting contact between Members and civil society. Intergroups ...

of the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adopts ...

's legislators which focuses on the rights of

lesbian A lesbian is a Homosexuality, homosexual woman.Zimmerman, p. 453. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate n ...

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...

bisexual Bisexuality is a romantic or sexual attraction or behavior toward both males and females, or to more than one gender. It may also be defined to include romantic or sexual attraction to people regardless of their sex or gender identity, whi ...

transgender A transgender (often abbreviated as trans) person is someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. Many transgender people experience dysphoria, which they seek to alleviate through tr ...

and

intersex Intersex people are individuals born with any of several sex characteristics including chromosome patterns, gonads, or genitals that, according to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, "do not fit typical bina ...

(LGBTI) persons both inside and outside the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...

. It is a cross-party group of

Members of the European Parliament A Member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the European Coal and Steel Commu ...

counting over 150 supporters from five political groups and all EU countries. The LGBTI Intergroup remains the largest in the 2019 to 2024 legislature. The Intergroup collaborates with EU institutions (

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the executive of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission (informally known as "Commissioners") headed by a President. It includes an administrative body o ...

Council of the European Union The Council of the European Union, often referred to in the treaties and other official documents simply as the Council, and informally known as the Council of Ministers, is the third of the seven Institutions of the European Union (EU) as ...

EEAS The European External Action Service (EEAS) is the diplomatic service and combined foreign and defence ministry of the European Union (EU). The EEAS is led by the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy (HR/VP), who is als ...

European Committee of the Regions The European Committee of the Regions (CoR) is the European Union's (EU) assembly of local and regional representatives that provides sub-national authorities (i.e. regions, counties, provinces, municipalities and cities) with a direct voice w ...

Fundamental Rights Agency The European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, usually known in English as the Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA), is a Vienna-based agency of the European Union inaugurated on 1 March 2007. It was established by Council Regulation (EC) No 168/20 ...

), Permanent Representations of

Member States A member state is a state that is a member of an international organization or of a federation or confederation. Since the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) include some members that are not sovereign states ...

, other European International Organisations (e.g.

Council of Europe The Council of Europe (CoE; french: Conseil de l'Europe, ) is an international organisation founded in the wake of World War II to uphold European Convention on Human Rights, human rights, democracy and the Law in Europe, rule of law in Europe. ...

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...

) and civil society associations (LGBTI-specific associations such as

ILGA-Europe ILGA-Europe is the European region of the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association. It is an advocacy group promoting the interests of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and intersex (LGBTI) people, at the European level. I ...

IGLYO The International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer & Intersex Youth and Student Organisation (IGLYO) is an international LGBTQI organisation that was created in 1984 as a reaction to the need for better cooperation among regional, local ...

Transgender Europe Transgender Europe (TGEU) is a network of different organisations working to combat discrimination against trans people and support trans people rights. It was founded in 2005 in Vienna during the 1st European Transgender Council as "European Tr ...

, NELFA, or with broader human rights focuses like

Front Line Defenders Front Line Defenders, or The International Foundation for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, is an Irish-based human rights organisation founded in Dublin, Republic of Ireland, Ireland in 2001 to protect those who work non-violently to uph ...

Civil Rights Defenders Civil Rights Defenders (Formerly the Swedish Helsinki Committee) is an international non-governmental organisation based in Stockholm, Sweden that does human rights work with a focus on civil and political rights. They primarily work to support lo ...

and

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...

Political priorities

The priorities are as follows: # Freedom of movement for LGBTI people # Monitoring the

# Combating

discrimination Discrimination is the act of making unjustified distinctions between people based on the groups, classes, or other categories to which they belong or are perceived to belong. People may be discriminated on the basis of race, gender, age, relig ...

in the European Union # Securing

and

rights # Monitoring

human rights Human rights are Morality, moral principles or Social norm, normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for ce ...

in the work of the European Union Both Co-Presidents and Vice-Presidents decide upon the Intergroup's work programme and priorities.

Membership

Presidency

The Bureau of the Intergroup is composed of 6 Members: *

Marc Angel Marc Angel (born 1963) is a Luxembourgish politician of the Luxembourg Socialist Workers' Party (LSAP) who has been serving as Vice-President of the European Parliament since 18 January 2023, and a Member of the European Parliament since 10 De ...

(

Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats The Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D) is the political group in the European Parliament of the Party of European Socialists (PES). The Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats was officially founded as a Socialist ...

), ''Co-President''; *

Kim van Sparrentak Kim van Sparrentak (born Middelburg, 16 October 1989) is a Dutch politician who is serving as a Member of the European Parliament for the GroenLinks GroenLinks (, ) is a green political party in the Netherlands. It was formed on 1 March 1 ...

( Greens-EFA), ''Co-President;'' * Maria Walsh (

European People's Party The European People's Party (EPP) is a European political party with Christian-democratic, conservative, and liberal-conservative member parties. A transnational organisation, it is composed of other political parties. Founded by primarily Ch ...

), ''Vice-President;'' * Pierre Karleskind (

Renew Europe Renew Europe (Renew) is a liberal, pro-European political group of the European Parliament founded for the ninth European Parliament term. The group is the successor to the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) group which exist ...

), ''Vice-President;'' * Malin Björk ( The Left), ''Vice-President''; * Fabio-Massimo Castaldo (Non-attached), ''Vice-President''. The Co-Presidents lead the Intergroup and represent it both inside and outside of the European Parliament, taking urgent decisions when necessary. Previous presidents and vice-presidents of the intergroup include: Terry Reintke (Greens-EFA),

Liesje Schreinemacher Elisabeth "Liesje" Schreinemacher (born 13 May 1983) is a Dutch lawyer and politician of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) who has served as Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation in the fourth Rutte cabinet sin ...

(Renew Europe),

Sophie in 't Veld Sophia Helena "Sophie" in 't Veld (born 13 September 1963) is a Dutch politician of the Democrats 66 party. She was elected as a Member of the European Parliament in 2004, and reelected in 2009, 2014 and 2019. She was her party's top candidate fo ...

(Renew Europe),

Tanja Fajon Tanja Fajon (born May 9, 1971) is a Slovenian politician, leader of Social Democrats, part of the Party of European Socialists and former Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from Slovenia. She has served as the minister of foreign and europ ...

(S&D), Sirpa Pietikäinen (EPP),

Ulrike Lunacek Ulrike Lunacek (] born 26 May 1957) is an Austrian politician who served as State Secretary for Cultural Affairs in the Second Kurz government, government of Chancellor Sebastian Kurz in 2020. She is a member of the Austrian Green party The Gree ...

(Greens-EFA), Daniele Viotti (S&D),

Michael Cashman Michael Maurice Cashman, Baron Cashman (born 17 December 1950), is a British actor, politician, and LGBT rights activist. A member of the Labour Party, he served as a Member of the European Parliament for the West Midlands from 1999 to 2014. H ...

(S&D),

(Greens-EFA) and Ian Duncan, Baron Duncan of Springbank, Ian Duncan (ECR).

Full members

As of November 2022 (in the

ninth European Parliament The ninth European Parliament was elected in the 2019 elections and is to last until the 2024 elections. Major events *23–26 May 2019 ** Elections to the 9th European Parliament. ***EPP (182 seats), S&D (154), RE (108), Greens/EFA (74), ...

), the Intergroup's membership consists of 156 members, including the aforementioned. By political group: * 49 of the

(S&D) * 31 of the Renew Europe Group (RE) * 31 of

The Greens–European Free Alliance ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

(Greens–EFA) * 18 of the

European People's Party Group The European People's Party Group (EPP Group) is a centre-right political group of the European Parliament consisting of Member of the European Parliament, deputies (MEPs) from the member parties of the European People's Party (EPP). Sometimes ...

(EPP) * 17 of The Left in the European Parliament (LEFT) * 3

non-attached Non-Inscrits (; abbreviated NI; also non-attached members, abbreviated NA) are Members of the European Parliament (MEP) who do not belong to one of the recognised political groups. These MEPs may be members of a national party, or of a Europe ...

members. The Intergroup additionally counts on the membership of eight other MEPs who do not wish their identity to be disclosed.

Secretary

The current secretary is Miguel Chambel since March 2020. Previous secretaries include: * Juliette Sanchez-Lambert (February 2018 – January 2020) *Evert Jacobsen (June 2014 – February 2018) *Bruno Selun (November 2009 – June 2014) *Maris Sergejenko (April 2008 – June 2009) *Kim Smouter (September 2006 – March 2008) *Catrine Norrgård (December 2005 – June 2006) *Oscar Ortiz-Nieminen (September 2005 – March 2006)

References

{{reflist

External links

European Parliament Intergroup on LGBTI Rights
Intergroups in the European Parliament International LGBT political advocacy groups LGBT rights in Europe