The European Parliament has voted in favor of an EU-wide conversion therapy ban on April 29, sending the legislation to be approved by the European Commission. The vote follows a petition brought forward by the European Citizens’ Initiative, a program that allows citizens of the EU to propose new laws. Once proposed laws reach one million valid petition signatures, the Commission is to decide on what actions to take. The petition against conversion therapy currently holds over 1.2 million signatures which have been compiled since 2024, according to PinkNews.
The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) hosted a debate ahead of the vote, which resulted in the committee calling for stronger enforcement of the European Union’s established LGBTIQ+ Equality Strategy 2026-2030, as well as an EU-wide ban on conversion therapy.
The LGBTIQ+ Equality Strategy 2026-2030 seeks to protect queer people from “harmful practices and hate-motivated offenses, empowering LGBTIQ+ communities and bodies promoting equality, and engaging civil society as well as Member States and other actors.”
Though conversion therapy is banned in several EU countries already – including France, Germany, Belgium, Spain, Greece, Portugal and Malta — it is still legal in some more rigid countries like Hungary, Poland and Slovakia.
Throughout Europe sentiments about LGBTQ+ people have been steadily improving. A recent survey from the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) shows that LGBTQ+ people are more open about their sexual orientation, gender identity or sex characteristics in their social environment than they were during a 2019 survey.
“These so-called conversion practices or therapies are not only harmful, they are a profound violation of human dignity and fundamental rights,” EESC president Seamus Boland said in a statement. “Let us be absolutely clear,” he continued. “There is nothing to fix or cure. What needs to change is not people, but the systems, attitudes, and structures than deny them their dignity.”
