In 2020, the European Union began to develop a new strategy to overcome the continuing discrimination and inequality faced by LGBTI+ people. The initiative is based on the List of actions to promote LGBTI Equality, which ran from 2015 to 2019. The adoption of the LGBTI+ Equality Strategy is based on the appeals of 18 EU member states, the European Parliament and representatives of civil society. This will become the guiding document for the actions of the European Union aimed at overcoming discrimination and the problems faced by LGBTI+ people, regardless of their citizenship, including in third countries.
In its recommendations Anti-Discrimination Centre “Memorial” emphasized that in the modern interdependent world, homophobic legislation and policies in some countries provoke deterioration of the situation and similar trends in other countries, and actions within the European Union alone are not enough to deal with this. ADC Memorial called on the European Commission to take more active and targeted measures in its foreign policy in order to protect and promote the rights of LGBTI + people in third countries, especially in the region of Eastern Europe and Central Asia. These measures should address the elimination of violence against LGBTI+ people, promote comprehensive anti-discrimination legislation and effective investigation of hate crimes, elimination of negative stereotypes and rhetoric regarding LGBTI+people. Taking into account the high risks for LGBTI+ people in these region, it is extremely important to take into account the needs and rights of LGBTI+ people when deciding on granting them asylum in the European Union.