{"id":453408,"date":"2026-05-13T17:59:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T15:59:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2026\/05\/13\/la-commissione-ue-agli-stati-membri-vietare-le-pratiche-di-conversione-di-genere\/"},"modified":"2026-05-13T19:31:23","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T17:31:23","slug":"the-eu-commission-calls-on-member-states-to-ban-conversion-practices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2026\/05\/13\/the-eu-commission-calls-on-member-states-to-ban-conversion-practices\/","title":{"rendered":"The EU Commission calls on Member States to ban conversion practices"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels \u2013 “There is nothing to cure and no one to change. You cannot erase a person\u2019s identity<\/strong>.\u201d This was stated<\/a> today (13 May) by the European Commissioner for Equality, Preparedness and Crisis Management, Hadja Lahbib<\/strong>, in response to the European Citizens\u2019 Initiative “Ban conversion practices in the European Union<\/strong>“. Erroneously presented as \u201ctherapies\u201d, conversion practices include<\/a> acts such as mental and physical manipulation, indoctrination, medical interventions, etc., and aim to alter the sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression of LGBTQIA+ people. According to a report by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA<\/a>), 24%<\/a> of LGBTQIA+ people in the EU have been subjected to such practices<\/strong>, a figure that doubles for trans women and men.<\/p>\n

\u201cBan conversion therapy in the European Union<\/b><\/a>\u201d is a European Citizens\u2019 Initiative (ECI) calling for a legally binding ban on conversion therapy targeting LGBTQIA+<\/strong> people in the European Union. Submitted on 17 November 2025, the initiative has gathered a total of <\/strong>1,128,063<\/b><\/a> verified signatures. From that point, the Commission had six months to issue a formal response. This arrived today (13 May) via Lahbib.<\/strong><\/b><\/p>\n

In recent months, the Commissioner has met with both the organisers of the Initiative and the victims of such abuses: “We have been given the opportunity to gather data, carefully assess the initiative, and prepare our response. And today we are providing it,<\/strong>\u201d she reiterated. She went on to explain that the Commission intends to adopt a Recommendation<\/a>, calling on EU Member States to ban conversion practices and emphasising that \u201cthey have a vital role to play, as this issue largely falls within their remit<\/strong>.\u201d The Commissioner also noted that “eight Member States have already banned these practices<\/strong>,” so the Commission is building on “this momentum to urge others to follow suit<\/strong>.”<\/p>\n

In 2027, the Commission will adopt a recommendation, rather than a legally binding ban as called for by the Initiative and its signatories. However, it plans to implement other complementary measures. In particular, “awareness-raising campaigns to prevent abuse<\/strong>,” “better access to justice for victims<\/strong>,” and “tailored training to strengthen medical and psychological support<\/strong>,” clarified Lahbib<\/strong>. The recommendation will also be drawn up on the basis of a structured dialogue with Member States through an “expert group on LGBTQIA+<\/strong> equality<\/strong> bringing together Member States and the Commission<\/strong>.” This represents “the first LGBTQIA+<\/strong> policy forum<\/strong> with civil society<\/strong> that will focus on how to combat conversion practices together<\/strong>,” she then highlighted. The group will also work on “a specific study to fully understand the scope and impact of these practices across the EU<\/strong>“, with results expected in early 2027. The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen<\/strong>, also spoke on the issue, stating that: “Today we are committing to adopting a recommendation to Member States, urging them to ban conversion therapy across the EU. It has no place in our Union<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Commission is responding to the European Citizens\u2019 Initiative, but will only put forward a recommendation rather than a legally binding ban, as called for by the ECI\u2019s supporters. Lahbib: \u201cIt will protect all LGBTQIA+ people, particularly the most vulnerable.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7907,"featured_media":453376,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[29788],"tags":[28074,32895,34096,34097,33394],"class_list":["post-453408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-diritti-en","tag-commissione-en","tag-lahbib","tag-lgbtqia","tag-pratiche-conversione","tag-ue"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453408","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7907"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=453408"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453408\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":453409,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453408\/revisions\/453409"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/453376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=453408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=453408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=453408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}