On the 17th of March, the Fundamental Rights Agency will publish the findings of a survey on what it’s like, from a human rights point of view, to be LGBTI today.

We covered 30 countries, the stories of 140,000 people in 30 countries for this survey. It’s the second time we have done it. The first was 7 years ago.

What’s changed over the 7 years? In too many places not enough, very little progress. It’s still the surprising shocking case that a majority of LGBTI people right across Europe are unwilling to be seen holding the hands of a same-sex partner.

Patterns of discrimination, even of violence are very worrying. And still, almost everywhere, very few of those people who are attacked report the incident to the authorities.

There is a lot we need to do, we know what we need to do. In this spirit I welcome the plans of the European Commission to develop new approaches in 2020. We ourselves will make many suggestions associated with our survey results.

But beyond those things targeted to states and institutions, we should look at what we can do on our streets, our villages, in our communities. We can take a part in combating prejudice and intolerance. We can work towards making our societies places where everybody can live with pride as who they are.