The European Citizens' Initiative (ECI) to ban conversion therapies for LGBTQ+ people has collected the one million signatures required for consideration by the European Commission.
This measure has no binding effect: although the Commission is required to respond, it is not obliged to turn this initiative into a new European legal act.
However, in September, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen mandated a commissioner to establish a strategy "on LGBTQ+ equality" after 2025. This strategy should focus in particular on "banning conversion therapy," she argued.
Conversion therapies claim to change a person's sexual orientation or gender identity, equating homosexuality with a disease.
They can take the form of exorcism sessions, courses or even electroshock therapy, among a host of other abuses that have lasting psychological and even physical repercussions on the often young people who undergo them.
According to the LGBTQ+ association, ILGA, conversion therapies are only completely banned in eight European Union countries: France, Belgium, Cyprus, Germany, Malta, Portugal, Spain and Greece.
