These practices can include verbal abuse, coercion, isolation, forced medication, electric shocks, and physical and sexual abuse, writes the Commission, and have “no therapeutic value.”
But the Commission said Wednesday it plans instead to adopt a recommendation in 2027 calling on countries to enact a ban on conversion practices — a decision that campaign organizers saw as a “missed opportunity.”
Through the recommendation, “the Commission will recognise the critical role that Member States play in this area and focus on supporting them in banning conversion practices, encouraging national action to extend the legal ban across the EU,” it said in its communication.
“The responsibility lies mostly at the level of the member states, and if we wanted to adopt a binding legislation, unanimity would have been necessary,” Lahbib told reporters.
Currently, only eight EU countries have banned conversion practices. “They have shown it can be done,” Lahbib said. “We are building on that momentum, on calling on the rest to follow, and with this recommendation in hand, I will personally advocate with ministers across our union to end these barbaric practices.”
The petition also asked the Commission to add these practices to the list of “eurocrimes,” which are serious crimes with a cross-border dimension, and possibly amend the 2008 directive on equality to include a ban on these practices.