EU as an External Actor and the Policy of Protection of LGBT Minorities in Candidate and Eastern Partnership Countries

KUCHYŇKOVÁ, Petra and Marek MEISNER. EU as an External Actor and the Policy of Protection of LGBT Minorities in Candidate and Eastern Partnership Countries. In UACES Annual Conference 2021. 2021.

Basic information

• Original name: EU as an External Actor and the Policy of Protection of LGBT Minorities in Candidate and Eastern Partnership Countries
• Authors: KUCHYŇKOVÁ, Petra and Marek MEISNER.
• Edition: UACES Annual Conference 2021, 2021.

Other information

• Original language: English
• Type of outcome: Presentations at conferences
• Field of Study: 50601 Political science
• Country of publisher: Czech Republic
• Confidentiality degree: is not subject to a state or trade secret
• WWW: UACES 2021 Conference: Panel 904: Rethinking enlargement
• Organization unit: Faculty of Social Studies
• Keywords in English: candidate countries Europeanisation; Neighbourhood Europeanization; Eastern Partnership; LGBT minority; social homophobia; political homophobia
• Tags: International impact

Abstract

The research will explore the influence of the EU on the position of LGBT minority and the policies concerning this minority in the candidate states and Eastern Partnership countries. Theoretically and conceptually the paper works with the concept of Europeanization in the EU external relations, more specifically with the concepts of candidate countries Europeanisation and Neighbourhood Europeanization (see e.g. Gawrich, Melnykovska and Schweickert 2010; Schimmelfennig, 2010; Sedelmeier 2011). Methodologically the research is based on qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) of current 6 EU candidate countries and 6 Eastern Partnership countries, in combination with a case study of North Macedonia (as a deviant case of the analysis). The aim of QCA is to find the necessary conditions and the combination of sufficient conditions for passing anti-discriminatory laws in accordance with the Council Directive 2000/78/EC, and their incorporation into the legal system in particular countries. The result will be coded as present if the particular country approved a legislation forbidding discrimination on a basis of sexual orientation (in accordance with the Council Directive 2000/78/EC). The reference year for the QCA was 2017 (because of the availability of data for all analysed countries). The three conditions, which were analysed using the QCA were: social homophobia, political homophobia, and influence of the EU. The condition of social homophobia was operationalized as the dominant attitude towards the LGBT community in the analysed countries. The condition of political homophobia was operationalized using 3 indicators: (1) presence of hate-speech in the discourse of representatives of governmental parties in particular countries; (2) prohibition or allowance of Pride parades; (3) laws prohibiting gay propaganda. Concerning the last condition, the influence of the EU, it was coded as present if the particular country belongs among the candidate countries or countries, which signed the Association Agreement with the EU. We also took into the account whether the particular country has a visa-free regime with the EU. As the main sources of data we used mainly the annual reports of ILGA-Europe organization. We also took into the account relevant reports of the organizations like ECOM – Eurasian Coalition on Health, Rights, Gender and Sexual Diversity, or ERA – LGBTI Equal Rights Association for Western Balkans and Turkey etc. The necessary conditions and the combination of sufficient conditions were found and defined on the basis of QCA according to the approach of Charles C. Ragin (2014) and with the usage of fsQCA 3.0 programme.