On Wednesday 19 February, the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) published its conclusions on the implementation by Bulgaria, France and Greece of recommendations made in 2022.
As far as Bulgaria is concerned, the recommendation to set up a working group on discrimination against LGBTI persons has not been implemented, notes ECRI, which is also concerned about a revision of the Education Act which prohibits “any propaganda, promotion, […] of non-traditional sexual orientation and/or designating a gender identity other than the biological one”.
The recommendation to increase the number of Roma mediators in the fields of health, education and employment has been implemented.
As concerns France, ECRI concludes that its recommendation to recognise caravans as a type of housing and to carry out a survey in collaboration with Traveller associations in order to define actual parking needs has not been implemented.
This is also the case for the recommendation concerning the introduction of an effective system for recording identity checks by law enforcement officers, despite some progress, which ECRI notes.
As concerns Greece, ECRI welcomes the adoption of a law prohibiting non-therapeutic surgical operations on intersex minors under the age of 15, but notes that the interdisciplinary committee required by this law to authorise operations on minors aged 15 or over has not yet been set up and that the drafting and dissemination of guidelines on the application of this law seem to have been suspended.
It therefore considers that its recommendation has been partially implemented.
ECRI notes that the recommendation to strengthen the functions of the Greek Ombudsman, in particular by allowing him to act asamicus curiae before the courts, has not been implemented, although it points out that efforts have been made to strengthen the Greek equality body, in particular through measures to transpose into national law a recent EU directive on the standards applicable to equality bodies.
See the conclusions for Bulgaria: https://aeur.eu/f/fkh
See the conclusions for France: https://aeur.eu/f/fki
See the conclusions for Greece: https://aeur.eu/f/fkj (Original version in French by Véronique Leblanc)