Original article (in Serbian) was published on 27/8/2025; Author: Teodora Koledin
Newsroom of FakeNews Tragač recently received a report from a reader regarding an Instagram post by the user @miomir_joksimovic_reloaded from November 22. The post claims that the European Union has “just adopted a law under which children can change their gender regardless of age and despite parental opposition.” However, FakeNews Tragač received a denial of these claims from the European Commission as well as from the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights.
The mentioned Instagram user states the following in the description of the post:
“Children can independently choose their gender under the new European Union law, which abolishes age limits for legal gender recognition and bans therapies aimed at prior medical and psychological assessments of whether children understand what gender change means and whether they truly want to undergo transition.”
During its investigation, FakeNews Tragač did not find any so-called “new EU law abolishing age limits for legal gender recognition,” which the questionable post refers to. On this occasion, we contacted the European Commission, which responded that in October the Commission “adopted its LGBTIQ+ Strategy for the period 2026–2030,” which relates to “ensuring that all people are treated equally and are not discriminated against in Europe.” In this regard, a Commission official emphasized that “member states themselves adopt laws,” and added the following:
“The Commission fully respects the competences of the member states, which include exclusive competence over the age of legal consent in relation to legal gender recognition. The Commission does not set rules or impose conditions regarding legal gender recognition procedures. Any suggestion that the Commission would force or impose such measures on member states is simply not true.”
The European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights provided a somewhat shorter response, clearly stating that “this claim is false,” and that “this issue falls under national competences, not the EU level.”
The EU strategy to which the Commission official drew our attention is also mentioned by the Instagram user in the description of his post, where he claims that “member states that oppose gender ideology will be punished under the LGBTIQ+ Equality Strategy 2026–2030.” However, in the actual document, we did not find any information about alleged “penalties.” Likewise, it does not state that age limits for legal gender recognition have been abolished at the European Union level; rather, it says that “the Commission will facilitate the exchange of best practices among member states to support the development of legal gender recognition procedures based on self-determination that are free of age restrictions.” These are strategic goals and recommendations of the European Commission, not adopted legislation that is legally binding on all EU member states.
