Government will propose how to regulate gender-neutral partnership in Lithuania - PM

VILNIUS - The Lithuanian government, taking into account the ruling of the Constitutional Court obliging the Seimas to regulate gender-neutral partnership in Lithuania, will draft legislation on the subject, even though the parliament is currently debating two related bills, Prime Minister Gintautas Paluckas has said.

"The justice ministry will certainly draft some proposals, but we will see whether the Seimas will have the political will to resolve the issues of the rights of a certain group of people," he told reporters in Vilnius on Thursday.

"The justice ministry and the government will do their job," he added.

The Constitutional Court last week gave the green light to the registration of gender-neutral partnerships when it ruled that the Seimas had violated the Constitution by failing for 24 years to fulfill its obligation, enshrined in the Civil Code, to adopt a separate law regulating partnerships in more detail, in order to give effect to the Code's provisions on cohabitation without marriage registration.

Although the Civil Code only provides for a partnership between a man and a woman, the Constitutional Court ruled that such a provision is unconstitutional as it discriminates against couples on the basis of sexual orientation.

After obliging the Seimas to regulate the issue of partnership, the Constitutional Court stated that, until it is done, unmarried couples have the right to register their cohabitation by applying to courts.

"NO NEED TO IMPROVISE"

The Seimas is currently debating two bills related to the regulation of relationships between different-sex and same-sex couples: the Civil Union Law and amendments to the Civil Code introducing the concept of "close relationship".

According to Paluckas, there is "no need to improvise" when legalizing civil partnerships in Lithuania.

"We need to try to find the broadest possible political consensus. It is necessary to find a way to realize the rights in such a way that there will be the least anger or attempts to stop the process, to overthrow it, or to complain about it again to someone else," the prime minister said.

A proposal by conservative MP Paulius Saudargas in the previous parliamentary term to regulate economic relations between partners through the concept of "close relationship" passed the first reading and still needs two votes to be adopted.

This bill is considered more conservative because it draws a clear distinction between couples in a close relationship and family relations.

Meanwhile, the draft Law on Civil Union, which would allow couples to register "civil unions", passed the first and second readings in the previous Seimas but was not put to a final vote due to a lack of support.

The latter bill stipulates that "partners must be loyal to and respect each other, and must support each other morally and materially and, according to each partner's means, contribute to the needs of their common life or of the other partner".

Also, the bill stipulates that partners in a civil union would have joint assets, but would also have the possibility to determine by separate agreement a different legal regime for their assets. They would also receive inheritance in accordance with the law and without paying inheritance taxes, be able to act in each other's name and in each other's interests, be able to represent each other in the field of healthcare, and would also have the right to access information on health issues.

REFUSED TO REGISTER MARRIAGE IN LITHUANIA

On Thursday, Martynas Norbutas, a well-known representative of the LGBTIQ community and former deputy environment minister, said that the Vilnius Civil Registry Office had refused to register his marriage to a man in Belgium.

"The Lithuanian Civil Code requires you to report a marriage contracted abroad, but when you report it, they follow the Civil Code's provision that the marriage must be between a man and a woman. This becomes a reason to reject the application," Norbutas told BNS.

He said he and his husband had appealed the decision of the registry office to the court.

According to Norbutas, the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled earlier this year that Poland must recognize same-sex marriages contracted abroad, and this ruling should also apply to Lithuania.

In Norbutas’ view, the refusal to recognize a foreign marriage in Lithuania poses serious obstacles to the rights of the partners and their children, if they have any, and also gives rise to curiosities.

"When Lithuania refuses to register the fact of our marriage as such, the biggest curiosity is that I could remarry a woman in Lithuania and be married twice," the man said.

Paluckas admitted that he sees a problem with this.

"Of course, I see it as a problem, because these are our Lithuanian citizens, this is a certain group of our society, which is marginalized to some extent today because of the non-realization of its rights," the prime minister said.

According to Norbutas, at least one other same-sex Lithuanian couple married in the Netherlands has faced a similar situation.