Written by David De Groot.
‘Rainbow families’ – same-sex couples with or without children – still face many obstacles while exercising their free movement rights today.
In a debate in the European Parliament in September 2010, then‑European Commissioner for Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship, Viviane Reding, stated, ‘Let me stress this. If you live in a legally recognised same-sex partnership, or marriage, in country A, you have the right – and this is a fundamental right – to take this status and that of your partner to country B. If not, it is a violation of EU law, so there is no discussion about this. This is absolutely clear, and we do not have to hesitate on this’.
Over a decade later, same-sex couples still experience issues when relying on their free movement rights.
While the European Court of Human Rights has upheld that all member countries must provide for a registered partnership for same-sex couples if they do not provide for same-sex marriage, it can be unclear which rights should be attached to such a status. And while the European Court of Justice has ruled that same-sex marriages and parenthood established for same-sex couples have to be recognised in all EU Member States for the purpose of free movement, this case law is still very unclear, due to mixed concepts, which has led to consistent Member State violations.
In her 2020 State of the Union Speech, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen stated ‘If you are [a] parent in one country, you are [a] parent in every country’. In 2021, the European Parliament declared the EU an LGBTIQ Freedom Zone. It has expressed its deepest concern regarding the discrimination suffered by rainbow families and their children in the EU and insists that the EU needs to take a common approach to the recognition of same-sex marriages and partnerships. In December 2022, the Commission proposed a regulation on the recognition of parenthood.
Read the complete briefing on ‘Free movement rights of rainbow families‘ in the Think Tank pages of the European Parliament.
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