The bill for the marriage of same-sex couples was put up for public consultation early Wednesday evening, as announced by the Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

The post on opengov

“Public consultation on the Minister of State’s draft law entitled: “Equality in civil marriage, amendment of the Civil Code and other provisions”

From today, Wednesday, January 24, 2024, the draft law of the Minister of State entitled “Equality in civil marriage, amendment of the Civil Code and other provisions” will be put up for public consultation.

The proposed draft law establishes in the Greek legal order the marriage between two persons regardless of their gender, in order to achieve equality in marriage and the legal protection of families. The institutionalization of marriage equality also creates equality in the rights of children of same-sex couples that already exist.

The planned extension of the right to marry is a decisive step towards the consolidation of equality and the removal of social exclusion and discrimination against same-sex couples and is part of the wider framework of creating a society without discrimination. Thus, our country is added to the long list of countries that have recognized marriage equality for a long time, such as the Netherlands, Belgium, Canada, Sweden, Norway, Portugal, Argentina, Denmark, France, Brazil, the United Kingdom, or more recently, such as Finland, Luxembourg, Ireland, Estonia, Germany, Malta, Australia, Switzerland and the USA (a total of 36 countries in the world).

The draft law, the drafting of which was also based on the legislative practice followed in many other European countries that have already established marriage equality (France, Germany, etc.), aims with only thirteen articles and with minimal interventions in the Civil Code and the rest of the legislation to enshrine the possibility of same-sex couples to marry, including all the necessary relevant transitional provisions connected therewith, as well as arrangements of kinship relationships with elements of foreignness. The necessary interventions are also being made for same-sex couples to have equal access to labor law rights. Finally, the bill strengthens protection against discrimination, extending the principle of equal treatment to the areas of social protection, education and access to services.

This draft law is a big step towards the implementation of the National Strategy for LGBTI Equality, which was prepared in 2021 by a special committee appointed by the Prime Minister headed by the former President of the European Court of Human Rights, Professor Mr. Lino- Alexander Siciliano.

On this important legislative initiative we invite you to participate with your comments and observations in the public consultation, which will end on Wednesday 31 January 2024 at 21:00»