HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE EUROPEAN CONSTITUTIONAL ORDER

INTERNAL MECHANISMS OF THE EUROPEAN UNION IN THE AREA OF PROTECTING LGBTQ+ RIGHTS Sára Eva Rujbr Abstract This article surveys the European Union’s internal legal and institutional architecture for protecting LGBTQ+ rights and evaluates how effectively those mechanisms work in practice. After situating LGBTQ+ equality within the EU’s broader identity‑building project – particularly the post 2004 “othering” dynamic that used LGBTQ+ friendliness as a hallmark of membership – the study maps the primary‑law guarantees (Treaties, Charter) and the patchwork of secondary legislation, with special attention to the Employment Equality Directive and stalled attempts to widen protection beyond the workplace. It then analyses judicial avenues – chiefly the Court of Justice’s preliminary‑reference case law (Maruko, Hay, Coman etc.) and the Article 7 TEU monitoring procedure – and contrasts them with non‑judicial tools such as equality bodies, the FRA’s data work, the Ombudsman and complaint routes to the European Commission. Across these layers, the article identifies persistent shortcomings: fragmented competences in family law, limited horizontal anti‑discrimination coverage, low reporting rates, and the soft‑law nature of peer review. It concludes that meaningful progress demands both deeper legislative harmonisation and stronger, more accessible enforcement channels, or the EU’s symbolic commitment to LGBTQ+ equality will continue to outpace tangible protection on the ground. Introduction Few organizations worldwide have made as significant an impact as the European Union ( hereinafter referred to as “EU” ) 1 in terms of protecting and ensuring legal equality on the grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity ( hereinafter referred to as “SOGI” ) based on binding norms. However, significant differences exist in the extent to which these norms are being respected and implemented in the Member States. 2 Some scholars suggest that the inefficient application of the norms is the 1 A comparison can be made with the Council of Europe, based on the European Convention on Human Rights; the United Nations, which references several documents, including the Yogyakarta Principles; the Organization of American States, based on the American Convention on Human Rights; and the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, based on the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights. However, the documents protecting LGBTQ+ minorities issued by these organizations vary in their scope and binding nature. 2 MOLE, Richard C.M. Nationalism and Homophobia in Central and Eastern Europe. The EU

124