Estonia’s Minister of Economy and Industry, Erkki Keldo, has approved a national action plan to broaden equal opportunities and protections for LGBTIQ people, ERR reports. The plan sets goals to ensure that everyone in Estonia has equal opportunity to live a full, supported, and inclusive life, regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, or…
Over 600 couples in Latvia have registered partnerships in one year since partnerships were recognised in legislation, LSM reports. The Register of Natural Persons contained information on altogether 613 registered partnerships as of 1 July 2025, including 235 same-sex and 378 opposite-sex partnerships. Under the law, a partnership can be entered into by two adults,…
Lithuania’s Prosecutor General, Nida Grunskiene, has asked the European Parliament to strip Lithuanian MEP Petras Grazulis of his parliamentary immunity to face prosecution in Lithuania, Baltic News Network reports. Grazulis stands accused of expressing contempt for members of the LGBT community. The case was put on hold after he was elected MEP. Grazulis faces fines…
The Lithuanian parliament, the Seimas, has voted to keep a civil union bill to recognise same-sex partnerships on the agenda of the parliament’s autumn session, BNS reports. Altogether 48 MPs voted to keep the bill on the agenda, another 48 were against, and 7 abstained. MPs initially supported the civil union bill in spring 2023….
Lithuania’s Vilnius Regional Court has told the prosecutor to ask the European Parliament to strip MEP Petras Grazulis of his parliamentary immunity, BNS reports. Earlier, Grazulis was charged with expressing contempt for members of the LGBT community. The case was put on hold after he was elected MEP. In May 2022, after the Lithuanian parliament,…
A private meeting between Gabrielius Landsbergis, chairman of Lithuania’s conservative Homeland Union (TS-LKD), and MP Eugenijus Gentvilas of the Lithuanian Liberal Movement (LLS) has highlighted tensions within the country’s coalition government, LRT reports. The meeting, initiated by Landsbergis, occurred after a period of strained communication. The opposition surmised that the meeting likely involved the possible…
Latvia’s partnership law came into effect on 1 July 2024, allowing all couples, including same-sex couples, to register their relationships, LSM reports. A partnership is not equivalent to marriage, however. The first partnership was registered just after midnight by a same-sex couple who began their relationship in early 2019. Kaspars Zalitis of the Dzivesbiedri movement…
Same-sex marriage is now legal under Estonian law as of 1 January 2024, ERR reports. The law allows two consenting adults to marry irrespective of their gender. Minister of Social Protection Signe Riisalo said that the law ensured equal rights, ending years of legal uncertainty. Same-sex couples, previously able to register civil partnerships, now enjoy…
If Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda decides to veto the government’s bill on gender-neutral civil unions, it would cause an “international scandal,” Economy Minister Ausrine Armonaite, chairwoman of the liberal Freedom Party, stated, BNS reports. Speaking in an interview on Ziniu Radijas, Armonaite urged Nauseda to take a stronger position on “defending European values.” Nauseda has not…