Age of consent in Europe

The lowest minimum age of consent for a close-in-age exception to apply in Europe is 12 (in Hungary), providing their older sexual partner is under 18.

[7] Sexual intercourse or other sexual acts with a person obviously under 16, by a person who reached 18 years of age, in the absence of elements of crime envisaged in Articles 138, 139 or 140 of this Code, is punished with correctional labour for the term of up to 2 years, or with imprisonment for the term of up to 2 years.The general age of consent in Austria is 14, as specified by § 206[9] of the penal code.

[citation needed] The offence "initiating sexual contacts with minors under 14 through the use of computer system" is punishable by two years' imprisonment (§ 208a Penal Code).

In April 1998, the Council of Europe set a deadline for compliance of 29 May 1998 and on 21 May 1998, the House of Representatives voted 36 to 8 in favour of legalising homosexual acts.

In 2002, under pressure from the EU[18] the parliament finally ended the disparate provisions and changed the age of consent to 17 for both heterosexual and homosexual acts, under the revised Criminal Code.

As of 2014, the age of consent is 16 for both males and females, sexual contact with any child under 16 regardless of gender is a felony and the ban on sodomy is lifted, thereby legalising homosexual sex.

[citation needed] In 1969, Denmark became the first country to legalise pictorial pornography,[24] but this did not affect laws related to the age of people participating in its production.

In 1980 it became illegal to sell, spread or possess pornography involving children under the age of 15, regardless of its country of origin (Danish Penal Code §235).

[25] In the period between the legalisation of pornography and the 1980 amendment to the Danish Penal Code, some companies (infamously Color Climax) exploited the lack of age restrictions on material produced in other countries.

In West Germany the latter rule was kept, with minor changes in 1973: Unblemishedness was no longer required, and the court could refrain from punishment if the offender was under 21 years of age.

In East Germany, the criminal code was supplemented in 1957 by a provision that allowed the waiving of prosecution if no harm had been done to socialist society by the unlawful act.

After German reunification, according to the Unification Treaty of 1990, the § 149 code section stayed in force for the territory of the former GDR, and in West Germany, § 175 and § 182 were no longer enacted.

[72] Lithuania has a close-in-age exemption if there's no "big difference in age, mental and physical maturity between the participants of the actions", according to §151.1(5) of the Lithuanian Criminal Code.

204 of Chapter 9 of the Laws of Malta (Defilement of minors) reads: A number of aggravating circumstances exist to this blanket provision including: Abuse of parental authority or tutorship, where the victim is under the age of 12 and if the offence is committed by means of threats or deceit.

203, there are requirements: The interpretation of the law is situational and at the discretion of the prosecution and the courts, based on relevant factors that may be taken into account to decide whether the minor was actually "defiled".

[94] (1) Sexual intercourse other than rape as well as any other acts of vaginal or anal penetration committed with a person certainly known to be under the age of 16 shall be punished by imprisonment for up to 5 years.

The relevant law, passed in November 1990, permitted sexual intercourse for young people between 12 and 16 in most circumstances, but allowed a challenge by parents or by the Child Protection Agency if there was evidence of exploitation.

As of 2014, the age of consent is set at 16 for both males and females, sexual contact with any child under 16 regardless of gender is a felony and the ban on sodomy is lifted, thereby legalising homosexual sex.

Aggravating circumstances as recidivism, multiple perpetrators, and unusual degree of degradation and pain, or physical harm (including, specifically, sexually transmitted diseases) may raise the maximum penalty.

[119] The late 1990s and the early 21st century saw major modifications to the criminal code, in an effort to modify what was seen as outdated provisions, especially as Romania prepared to enter the EU.

The deed provided for by Part Two of this article which is made by the person who has a previous conviction for having committed an offence against sexual integrity of a minor - shall be punishable by deprivation of liberty for a term of ten to fifteen years with deprivation of the right to hold definite offices or to engage in definite activities for a term of up to twenty years.

A close-in-age exception for sexual acts with persons under 14 exists, defined as being "no considerable difference between the offender and the child in respect of their mental and physical development".

However, some homosexuals were arrested in the days of the Second Spanish Republic under the "Ley de Vagos y Maleantes" (Vagrants and Common Delinquents Law).

[140] In a verdict on 30 March 2007, the Swedish Supreme Court ruled that a 17-year-old boy had not committed a criminal act by having sexual intercourse with a girl 14 years and 7 months old.

...Första stycket gäller även den som begår en gärning som avses där mot ett barn som fyllt femton men inte arton år och som är avkomling till gärningsmannen eller står under fostran av eller har ett liknande förhållande till gärningsmannen, eller för vars vård eller tillsyn gärningsmannen ska svara på grund av en myndighets beslut.—Section 4, Chapter 6, Swedish Penal Code[140]They who has committed an action ... shall not be held liable if it is obvious that the action was not a violation against the child considering the relative difference in age and development between they who committed the action and the child as well as the circumstances in general.

[152] The United Kingdom is a political union of four separate countries and three distinct legal jurisdictions (England and Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland).

In response, the Government introduced the Crime and Disorder Bill that contained a provision lowering the age of consent for homosexual acts to 16.

There have been various suggestions to lower the age of consent to 14 – in 1998 the New Labour government proposed this, but despite some left-wing and youth support[citation needed] this had been dropped by early 2003 as lacking support, a decade later in early 2013 the suggestion by civil servants to lower the age of consent to 14 was rejected by the Conservative led coalition as 'offensive' (at least under some circumstances) and attention was drawn to the impact of recent scandals on the reception to any proposals.

The change was a result of the judgement in the European Court of Human Rights case of Dudgeon v United Kingdom (1981) in which the ECHR held that a prohibition on homosexual acts was a breach of Article 8 of the convention.

The age of consent for gay male sexual conduct was lowered to 18 in 1994 when the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 was implemented (as to be in line with England and Wales).