On Thursday, 22 May, a coalition of LGBT rights organisations, including ILGA-Europe, published a joint statement following a hearing held by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in the Shipov case.
The hearing followed a complaint filed by a Bulgarian transgender woman who currently lives in Italy. Her requests to have her gender marker and her name legally changed on her Bulgarian identity documents have been rejected by the Bulgarian courts several times.
The CJEU has challenged Bulgaria’s de facto ban on the legal gender recognition. This could also constitute a violation of EU fundamental rights.
During the hearing, the European Commission stated that Member States that do not allow transgender people to obtain legal recognition of their gender are breaking EU law by restricting “the enjoyment of EU law rights”, including the right to free movement.
The signatory associations support the applicant and her lawyers in this case.
The advocate general will deliver his opinion this coming 4 September.
Read the statement: https://aeur.eu/f/h0i (Original version in French by Nithya Paquiry)