Greece announces legislation to recognise cohabiting same-sex couples
The same month that it was ruled by the Strasbourg Court that Greece was violating the European Convention on Human Rights by not allowing civil partnerships, it has announced legislation to legally recognise cohabiting same-sex couples.
Greece’s ban on same-sex couples from entering civil unions violates the European Convention of Human Rights, the European court ruled. On Thursday 7 November, the European Court of Human Rights declared that excluding same-sex couples from any type of legal recognition was wrong.
The filing of the legislation was announced this week, some critics say with a view to regulate Greek law with the convention.
The PASOK party met with the Minister of Justice Charalambos Athanassiou, and the parties discussed the issue.
Then the General Secretary of the Ministry of Interior, Yiannis Ioannidis, said the legislation was an important step in the fight against discrimination.
”The modern challenges that Greece must face are such that require the broadest possible consensus at least in elementary issues such as the way government deals with phenomena that threaten both citizens and democracy.” he said.
According to the European Court of Justice, out of 19 countries with integrated legal forms for the union of couples into their law, only Greece, and Lituania, have excluded same-sex couples from legal protections.
