LGBTI equality and human rights in Europe and Central Asia

NELFA to Commissioner Reding: ensure true freedom of movement for LGBT parents and their children in the EU

The Vice-President of the Network of European LGBT Families Associations (NELFA), Juha Jämsä, delivered on 24 September, in Helsinki, Finland, a public petition on behalf of NELFA’s 21 national member associations asking for true freedom of movement for LGBT parents and their children in the European Union.

On this occasion, Catalina Pallàs, NELFA’s President, commented, “Today, in the European Union, some children risk losing their parents when their families cross the border from one Member State, where marriage and family equality are legally protected, into another Member State where this is not the case. How is it possible that some children are subject to such levels of legal uncertainty as to have two legal parents in one Member State but either just one or none in another?”

Juha Jämsä, Vice-President of NELFA, added, “We are concerned that the current state of affairs has created a category of second-class children in the European Union, simply because these children happen to have two parents of the same sex.”


In the petition, NELFA’s members asked Commissioner Reding to introduce a legislative proposal to ensure equality of treatment for the children of LGBT parents across the European Union. This can be achieved by Member States automatically recognising the effects of those acts that have been validly performed by a Member State, such as registrations of births, adoption orders, marriage certificates, etc. confirming family status.


NELFA invited Commissioner Reding to take a strong stand on behalf of children of LGBT parents.


Read the petition from NELFA to Commissioner Reding here