The Nationalist Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in Malta, along with the Labour Party.
Joseph Borg is a Maltese politician and diplomat. Prior to taking up the post of Commissioner for Fisheries and Maritime Affairs, he was Minister of Foreign Affairs and led Malta's EU-accession negotiations.
Rocco Buttiglione is an Italian Union of Christian and Centre Democrats politician and an academic.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in Poland face legal challenges not faced by non-LGBT residents. According to ILGA-Europe's 2022 report, the status of LGBTQ rights in Poland is the worst among European Union countries.
LGBT people in Hungary face legal and social challenges not experienced by non-LGBT residents. Homosexuality is legal in Hungary for both men and women. Discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and sex is banned in the country. However, households headed by same-sex couples are not eligible for all of the same legal rights available to heterosexual married couples. Registered partnership for same-sex couples was legalised in 2009, but same-sex marriage remains banned. The Hungarian government has passed legislation that restricts the civil rights of LGBT Hungarians – such as ending legal recognition of transgender Hungarians and banning LGBT content and displays for minors. This trend continues under the Fidesz government of Viktor Orbán. In June 2021, Hungary passed an anti-LGBT law on banning "homosexual and transexual propaganda" effective since July 1. The law has been condemned by seventeen EU countries so far. Also, in July 2021, the EU Commission has started legal action against Hungary and Poland for violations of fundamental rights of LGBTQI people: "Europe will never allow parts of our society to be stigmatized." Russia had similar laws implemented in 2013.
In Russia, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people face legal and social challenges not experienced by others. Although sexual activity between same-sex couples has been legal since 1993, homosexuality is disapproved of by most Russians, and same-sex couples and households headed by same-sex couples are ineligible for the legal protections available to opposite-sex couples. Russia provides no anti-discrimination protections for LGBT people and does not have a designation for hate crimes based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Transgender people are allowed to change their legal gender without requiring sex reassignment surgery; however, there are currently no laws prohibiting discrimination based on gender identity or expression, and recent laws could discriminate against transgender residents. Homosexuality has been declassified as a mental illness and although gay and lesbian individuals are legally not allowed to serve openly in the military, there is a de facto policy.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in Albania face legal challenges not experienced by non-LGBT residents, due in part to the lack of legal recognition for same-sex couples in the country and prevailing negative attitudes about LGBT people throughout society, although LGBT people in Albania are protected under comprehensive anti-discrimination legislation. Both male and female same-gender sexual activities have been legal in Albania since 1995, but households headed by same-sex couples are not eligible for the same legal protections available to opposite-gender couples, with same-sex unions not being recognized in the country in any form.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights in Malta are of the highest standards, even by comparison to other European countries. Throughout the late 20th and early 21st centuries, the rights of the LGBT community received more awareness and same-sex sexual activity was legalized in 1973, with an equal age of consent.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights are widely diverse in Europe per country. Nineteen out of the 33 countries that have legalised same-sex marriage worldwide are situated in Europe. A further eleven European countries have legalised civil unions or other forms of more limited recognition for same-sex couples.
Harry Vassallo was the Chairperson of the Maltese Green political party, Democratic Alternative from 1998 till 2008. He was succeeded by Prof. Arnold Cassola.
The European Humanist Federation, officially abbreviated as EHF-FHE, is an umbrella of more than 60 humanist and secularist organisations from 25 European countries.
Religion in the European Union is diverse. The largest religion in the EU is Christianity, which accounted for 72.8% of EU population as of 2018. Smaller groups include those of Islam, Buddhism, Judaism, Hinduism, and some East Asian religions, most concentrated in Germany and France. Also present are revival movements of pre-Christianity European folk religions including Heathenism, Rodnovery, Romuva, and Druidry.
Abortion in Malta is illegal in all cases, Malta has one of the strictest anti-abortion laws in the world. Malta is the only country in the European Union to prohibit abortion entirely and one of the two European countries to prohibit it with Andorra. Treatment for an ectopic pregnancy is allowed with a case-by-case decision.
The history of the European Union from 2004 to the present is the current timeline of the European union. It is a period of significant upheaval and reform following the 2004 enlargement of the European Union. The EU has taken on ten new members, eight of which were initially much poorer than the EU average, and took in a further two in 2007 with many more on the way. It created the euro a few years before and had to expand this, and the Schengen Area to its new members. However this was overshadowed by the late-2000s recession and damaging disputes over the European Constitution and its successor, the Treaty of Lisbon. Throughout this period, the European People's Party has been the largest group in the European Parliament and provides every President of the European Commission.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in Samoa face legal challenges not faced by non-LGBT people. Same-sex sexual acts are illegal, punishable by up to seven years imprisonment, but the law is not enforced.
Helena Dalli is a Maltese politician serving as European Commissioner for Equality since 1 December 2019. She is a member of the Labour Party.
Cyrus Engerer is a Maltese Member of European Parliament representing the Labour Party. A gay rights activist, he was the leading spokesperson for the Yes campaign at the 2011 Maltese divorce referendum. In 2021 he was tasked with negotiating the European Parliaments historic resolution on the declaration of the European Union as an LGBTQ Freedom zone, in reaction to the establishment of so called "LGBT-Free zones" in Poland. Engerer later went on to write the European Parliaments resolution which condemned the laws in Hungary which effectively banned "LGBT propaganda" in the vicinity of schools. From 2014 till 2019 Engerer was the Prime Minister's special envoy to the European Union. He was elected as a Member of the European Parliament in November 2020. After he joined the Labour Party the Police of Malta opened an investigation against him, leading to his father's arrest, the opening of a court case against him on spreading pornography and the arrest of his mother on election day. He himself was convicted for spreading revenge porn and received a suspended two years term imprisonment. He is the partner of Partit Laburista's Member of Parliament Randolph De Battista.
Portugal is generally considered as successful in upholding the civil liberties and protecting the human rights of its citizens. Portugal has proved to be determined in promoting and respecting human rights at an international and national level. The country's minister of Justice as of September 2018, Francisca Van Dunem, said that Portugal has had "a good track record" on human rights but violations still do persist.
The Polish constitutional crisis, also known as the Polish rule-of-law crisis, is a political conflict ongoing since 2015 in which the Polish government has been accused of failing to adhere to European and Polish constitutional law. The 2015 elections resulted in the Law and Justice party winning control of both the presidency and the parliament. With this government trifecta as a result of its participation in the United Right, PiS used its power to appoint judges to the Constitutional Tribunal in 2015, leading to the 2015 Polish Constitutional Court crisis. The government of Poland continued to expand its hold on the judiciary resulting in the 2017 Supreme Court crisis, and the 2019 Polish judicial disciplinary panel law. These events have allowed the legislature and executive of the Polish government to have de facto control over judges and their appointments.
The Act LXXIX of 2021 on taking more severe action against paedophile offenders and amending certain Acts for the protection of children, often mentioned in English-language media as Hungary's anti-LGBT law are legislative amendments that were approved by the Hungarian Parliament on 15 June 2021, on a 157–1 vote. It was condemned by human rights groups and left-wing Hungarian opposition parties as discriminatory against the LGBT community. The EU and the United States consider the amendments to be discriminatory anti-LGBT restrictions. By contrast, most Eastern European EU countries did not take a public stance, apart from Poland, which supported the Hungarian position.
