The organiser of Ban Conversion Practices in the EU: We chose to use the European Citizens’ Initiative because it gives voice to European citizens

Matteo Garguilo is the representative of the European citizens' initiative which calls for a ban on conversion practices within the European Union.

Matteo Garguilo: Conversion practices towards LGBT people aim to repress or discriminate against people because of their sexual orientation, their gender expression or their gender identity. These are practices that have been considered torture by the UN since 2020. They push people to depression and suicide. These practices are prohibited only in a minority of countries within the European Union and are sometimes prohibited partially and not entirely. That's why we chose to use the European Citizens’ Initiative, as it's a way of giving voice to European citizens, of being able to say to the Commission “We want you to do something”. The European Commission has the power to ban conversion therapy on the scale of the 27 countries of the EU. 

We believe that the most important thing would be that all the countries of the European Union were represented in this Initiative so that we had a truly representative request from all EU citizens to prohibit these practices which lead to the death and suffering of LGBT people. 

We launched this initiative with 12 associations which defend LGBT rights in 12 different countries of the European Union. We are in the process of organising with European LGBT associations throughout Europe to set up a campaign, both online and in person, to collect as many signatures as possible over the one-year period to achieve the goal of one million signatures.

Q: How did you come across the European Citizens’ Initiative? 

Matteo Garguilo: I discovered the participatory democracy tool of the European Citizens’ Initiative about 3-4 years ago. I was still a high school student at the time and I found this tool very relevant. It was related to the debates in France regarding participatory democracy, our Shared Initiative Referendum. I found this tool from the European Union which in my opinion was not used enough, and I thought that it was a great opportunity to use it to defend the ban on conversion practices within the European Union as this is part of the competence of the European Commission.

I think everyone can start a European citizens’ initiative, you just have to motivate yourself and really read the fine print. It's really not that complicated. The important thing is to choose a topic that falls into the competencies of the European Commission. The people from the European Citizens’ Initiative Forum will be there to support you throughout the application process. The hardest part is hanging in there and being motivated.

We also realised that in 2020, there was a reform of the European Citizens’ Initiative so that there are even more responses from the European Commission and more interest in the Initiatives that pass the milestone of one million signatures. This really motivated us because we saw that, for example, for the Initiative on Finning, the cutting of fins from the backs of sharks and trading them, the European Commission is in the process of evaluating possible legal responses to this problem. We hope that the Commission will do the same for us if we manage to become successful and that it will seek to propose a legal response to our problems as it does for other initiatives.

NB: The collection of signatures for this ECI opens on 17 May 2024.