Prime Minister: as long as the Seimas does not enter into a partnership, the only solution is to apply to the CT

“This is a Government resolution that must be considered at a Government meeting and then go to the Constitutional Court. I don’t see any other way to solve this issue when the Seimas refuses to solve this issue. The courts also do not solve the problem, because they are waiting for the adoption of a law that the Seimas does not want to adopt,” the Prime Minister said to radio “Znad Wilii” on Friday.

“In my opinion, this situation is abnormal. Therefore, appealing to the Constitutional Court, what the Government can do, is such a way,” she added.

I.Šimonytė said that the appeal will be made when “the document is harmonized”.

According to the Prime Minister, the Cabinet of Ministers also acted and turned to the CT when the Seimas refused to consider the draft amendment to the Law on the Protection of Minors prepared by the Ministry of Justice, which provides for the deletion of the provision that information that disparages family values ​​or promotes a different than traditionally perceived marriage or the concept of creating a family.

“We hope that the CT will consider this issue and make one or another decision. When they make that decision, then we can continue the discussion. I believe that those wills will still appear in the Seimas. (…) If not this one, then the next Seimas will still adopt that law”, said the Prime Minister.

At the beginning of May, the Ministry of Justice prepared a draft of the Government’s resolution to apply to the Constitutional Court regarding the absence of a same-sex partnership institute. President Gitanas Nausėda said that such a move by politicians shows helplessness.

According to the Government’s draft resolution, the CT would be asked to evaluate two norms of the Civil Code.

He intends to ask whether the code’s provision that only a man-woman partnership is possible, and the fact that the section of the code regulating cohabitation without registration of marriage, will only come into force when the partnership law is passed, is not contrary to the country’s fundamental law.

The draft emphasizes that the principle of equality of persons, prohibition of discrimination is enshrined in the Constitution, and the state undertakes to protect and defend all families that meet the constitutional concept of family.

Since the beginning of the term, the Freedom Party has been trying to pass a law in the parliament on the legalization of partnerships both between different sexes and between persons of the same sex. Last May, the Seimas approved the civil union bill by a majority of several votes, but it is not possible to present the bill for adoption, as it may lack the votes to pass it.

The draft law on civil union provides that the partners who have entered into it will create joint partial ownership, but will have the opportunity to establish a different legal regime of the property in a separate agreement, inherit according to the law and not pay inheritance taxes, have the opportunity to act in each other’s name and interests, represent each other in the field of health care , could receive health-related information.

Currently, partnerships are not legalized in Lithuania, neither for a man and a woman, nor for same-sex couples. Previous attempts to do so in parliament were unsuccessful.