EU states signing declaration committing to legal equality, protection, national strategies and work for social acceptance of LGBTIQ people

Surprising Poland win

Thats what a new Tusk government will do to a country
- Sign a document for PR and not actually implement any changes?

Bulgaria: No need to sign anything, it’s already done. Everyone has the equal right to marry the opposite sex, and nobody can change (de facto) their legal gender. Everyone is already accepting of the LGBT people, as long as they don’t show it publicly.

Jokes aside, outside of Sofia the public opinion is that there are matters much more important than that. Homophobia is also widespread so it’s a political suicide to ratify something like this. The Istanbul convention was a huge “scandal” for just mentioning that it applies to trans women as well. There was a huge disinformation campaign and it worked. We ratified it anyways because it was integrated into an EU directive so yay?

it's funny that the first state to resign the Istanbul convention is Istanbul's 🤷
and it's not funny at all :/

Good ol' Estonia

When you want into nordics... Or nordics into you

Romania is a messy country for LGBTIQ people. Generally speaking, LGBQ are accepted (trans people absolutely not), but the government tried to pass a constitutional amendment a few years back to solidify marriage as strictly between a man and a woman. Thankfully, it failed because the general population shunned the referendum so that it couldn't get the required 50% turnout for it to be valid.

Positive steps are few and far between, but thankfully it isn't backsliding.

If marriage was the issue, they still could have signed because the declaration explicitly says "legal status for same-sex couple" instead of "marriage". My best guess is that these multiple countries dont want to commit to fighting against the "anti lgbtq movement".
- My best guess is that these multiple countries dont want to commit to fighting against the "anti lgbtq movement".
  For Romania, this is exactly the issue. The political situation is pretty crazy, we have a political party called AUR which is the worst reactionary tinfoil hat collection of crazies, very reminiscent of extreme US republicans. They are currently a fringe party, but growing. The mainstream socially conservative party (PSD, a socialist party... long story) don't want to lose voters to the crazies, so they have to portray themselves as anti-LGBT. An alliance of socially progressive and economically liberal parties (PNL, USR+) is currently in power, and want to concentrate on how amazing the economy is and freeze social issues because they're too divisive to win elections on.
  TL;DR: Romanian politics are an absolute mess.

But clearly Russia would be the best for this if it was included. I have it on very strong authority from my hexbear friends.

Source: Belgian EU council presidency

it would be good to compare this map with the most religious ones

Czechia is the least religious country in Europe, while Croatia is quite religious.. not a good metric here
- Croatia is on Balkan, which we all know is frointier in humanity and social norms /s
  Just yesterday there was march of catho-talibans under name od "walk for life", i.e. no abortion under any circumstances(kill two for price of one).
  And there are still "men" praying on capital squares for women to return to kitchen (seriously), i.e. the kneelers.
  So social development seems to be more relevant than religion.

Iceland?

Not part of the EU...
Explanations for Iceland's non-membership of the European Union
The importance of the fishing industry to Iceland's economy and the perception that EU membership (and its Common Fisheries Policy) will have an adverse effect on the fishing industry.
The perception that EU membership will have an adverse effect on Iceland's agricultural sector.
Iceland's strong ties with the United States, which included significant economic, diplomatic and military assistance, decreased Iceland's dependence on European countries.
The victories in the Cod Wars may have strengthened Icelandic nationalism and boosted the perception that Iceland can succeed through unilateral or bilateral means rather than compromise in multilateral frameworks.
The Icelandic electoral system favors rural areas, which are more eurosceptic.
The tendency for Icelandic elites to pursue education in the United States or eurosceptic European countries (such as the United Kingdom or the Nordic countries), and to cooperate more closely with political elites from those countries.
Icelandic nationalism and the legacy of Iceland's past as a colonial entity.
The impact of the Icesave dispute with the Netherlands and the UK.

Must have forgotten the name/address of that one person in Andorra

Swiss is working on it.

Swiss isn't EU
- Yes?
- good thing the image says europe, not EU
  or do you think they're the same thing?

Good to see Estonia is acting Nordic.

given that the UK, norway, and switzerland are grey, i'm going to assume this is actually talking about the EU.

why why why why is it so hard for people to remember that Europe and The EU are not the same thing???

Read the first word of the post title, my dude
- and yet the actual content of the post clearly says europe, not EU
- Ironically EU shorthand for Europe and European Union