EU as an External Actor and the Policy of Anti-Discrimination with the focus on LGBTQI Minorities in Candidate and Eastern Partnership Countries

The research explores possible influence of the EU on the position of the LGBTQI minority and the anti-discrimination policy in the candidate states and Eastern Partnership countries. Theoretically and conceptually the paper works with the concept of Europeanization in the EU external relations, more specifically with the concepts of candidate countries Europeanisation and Neighbourhood Europeanization (see e.g. Gawrich, Melnykovska and Schweickert 2010; Schimmelfennig, 2010; Sedelmeier 2011). Methodologically the research is based on qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) in combination witch diachronic approach and selected case studies. The aim of the QCA was to find the necessary conditions and the combination of sufficient conditions for the adoption of anti-discriminatory laws in accordance with the Council Directive 2000/78/EC, and their incorporation into the legal systems in particular countries. The result will be coded as present if the particular country approved a legislation forbidding discrimination on a basis of sexual orientation (in accordance with the Council Directive 2000/78/EC). We plan a two- stage research which would take into account the changes in time and also the recent changes in the number and composition of the EU candidate and potential candidate countries. Identification of cases for further research will also enable to look more in a detail at the process of real implementation of anti-discriminatory laws and the problems with the implementation and their possible causes. In the analysis using QCA we take into account the following basic conditions social homophobia, political homophobia, and influence of the EU as an external actor. The condition of social homophobia was operationalized as the dominant attitude towards the LGBTQI community in the analysed countries. The condition of political homophobia was operationalized using 3 indicators: (1) presence of hate-speech in the discourse of representatives of governmental parties in particular countries; (2) prohibition or allowance of Pride parades; (3) laws prohibiting gay propaganda. Concerning the last condition, the influence of the EU, it was coded as present if the particular country belongs among the candidate or potential candidate countries or which belonged in the past among the EaP countries that signed the Association Agreement with the EU (the former Associated Trio). As the main sources of data we used mainly the annual reports of ILGA-Europe organization. We also took into the account relevant reports of the organizations like ECOM – Eurasian Coalition on Health, Rights, Gender and Sexual Diversity, or ERA – LGBTI Equal Rights Association for Western Balkans and Turkey etc. The necessary conditions and the combination of sufficient conditions were found and defined on the basis of QCA according to the approach of Charles C. Ragin (2014) and with the usage of fsQCA 3.0 programme.