That harassment and discrimination occurs “in all areas of social life,” from schools to the workplace to health care centers, the report by the EU’s Fundamental Rights Agency said.

Agency Director Morten Kjaerum said the investigation found gays and lesbians continue to face assault and other physical attacks due to their sexual orientation despite EU rules meant to guarantee equality in the 27-nation bloc.

“These are alarming signals in an EU that prides itself on its principles of equal treatment and nondiscrimination,” he told reporters at the European Parliament.

The report said gay pride events were being obstructed in Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Poland and Romania. Meanwhile, politicians and religious leaders in Italy, Hungary, Malta, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic have also rejected calls to improve the rights of gays and lesbians.

Kjaerum said, according to the scarce data available from national authorities, “very few incidents” of assault, hate speech by public figures or verbal attacks are reported to police.

Current laws meant to protect against discrimination also do not cover areas such as housing, education or health care, he noted.

The report, which compiled studies and surveys from across Europe, said homophobic abuse is usually carried out by young men in groups, but is also persistent at work, in school or when trying to get medical care.

Kjaerum appealed to EU nations to improve equality legislation, to better record hate crimes “and to train police accordingly.” The agency also recommended better awareness campaigns to promote diversity and fight discrimination.

“It is high time the EU practices what it preaches,” said Spanish deputy Ignasi Guardans. “The European Commission wants to be a champion of human rights, but sadly every day we hear about anti-discrimination laws being flouted by member states.”

The document also calls for equal access to reproductive methods and guarantees for the rights of Roma – also known as Gypsies. 

The measure still needs the approval of the EU’s Council of Ministers before becoming law.

Same-sex marriage is legal in the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain and, as of Jan. 1, Norway.  The UK allows civil partnerships with all of the rights of marriage except the name. Other countries such as France and Germany offer limited rights to same-sex couples.

But in a number of states – mainly former Communist countries – gay and lesbian couples are without rights and homophobia continues to be a major problem.

Earlier this year, Polish President Lech Kaczynski threatened to veto the European Union’s proposed charter of rights if it were endorsed by Parliament if it contained guarantees of equal rights for gays and lesbians.

Under an agreement worked out with Kaczynski, the charter was approved with the LGBT protections dropped.

In June, the Greek government moved to annul the marriages of two same-sex couples and indict the mayor who performed them in a small town.

In October, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Petras Vaitiekunas admitted in Parliament that EU criticism the country was the most homophobic in Europe was justified.

In 2007, about 200 people attending an international LGBT rights conference in Vilnius were overcome with a noxious gas when several smoke bombs were thrown into the club where the meeting was taking place.

Police refused to allow those inside the building to leave, saying they had not contained the perimeter, even though the fumes had filled the building.

The researchers, from the University of Provence, studied the current genetic makeup of people from modern-day England, France, Greece, Germany and Spain. The results of the study are reported in the journal New Scientist.

The scientists say they found that a gene variant which protects against HIV is missing among segments of the population in the countries they examined within the boundaries of the Roman Empire. Furthermore, the frequency of the missing gene, CCR5-delta32, is strongest closest to Rome and weakest the further one is from the center of the Empire.

The presence of the CCR5-delta32 gene is widely believed to offer protection from HIV.

The Roman Empire expanded outward from Rome over 1,000 years. In Italy, Greece and Spain, where the Roman occupation lasted the longest, between 0 and 6 percent of the population exhibit the gene.

But in Germany and England where Roman rule was shortest, between eight and 12 percent of the population have the CCR5-delta32 gene.

People in European countries never conquered by Rome have even greater percentages of the gene.

In their report, the University of Provence researchers say it is doubtful the genetic differences are due to breeding between Roman soldiers and local populations, since military accounts from the period suggest there was little sexual interaction between the two.

Instead, they speculate that the Romans carried a disease into the local populations that destroyed CCR5-Delta32.

In a separate study, scientists at the University of Liverpool also have been researching CCR5-Delta32 and believe it had been more prevalent among people in much of Western Europe, those populations could have better fended off bubonic plague, known as the Black Death, which swept Europe.