European cities and regions have been urged to protect Pride marches, support LGBTI community spaces and remove unnecessary barriers to peaceful events in a report adopted by the Council of Europe’s Congress of Local and Regional Authorities on 28 October 2026.

The proposals focus on what local government can do in practice: permit events without avoidable administrative delays or disproportionate conditions, and provide appropriate police protection when needed.

Beyond permission to march

The Congress’s announcement also calls for practical and financial help for LGBTI organisations, a designated equality contact and regular dialogue with community groups.

It recommends training teachers, public officials and law-enforcement officers to recognise discrimination and respond to hate incidents. Recording threats, hate speech and violence would help authorities identify local problems and shape their response.

Recommendations, rather than a new municipal law

These are recommendations to public authorities, not a new law automatically imposed on every municipality. The Congress also asks national governments to provide the powers and resources local authorities need, rather than require them to restrict expression or assembly.

The report and accompanying texts set out the institutional framework. The adoption took place in Strasbourg on 28 October, not on this article’s publication date.

Local LGBTQ+ policy is also the subject of our earlier coverage of French municipal election commitments. That separate story concerns candidates’ pledges, rather than this Europe-wide report.