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This week, the civil society bill has already fallen into the hands of the ruling coalition partners. Now members of the Seimas will have to reach a consensus on which law should finally see the light and register with the Seimas.
You intend to register in the spring
Tomas Vytautas Raskevičius, chairman of the Seimas Human Rights Committee, hopes that the coalition partners will reach a consensus within a week and that the project itself can be registered with the Seimas in late February or early March.
The project presented to the coalition partners is based on 2017. Amendments to the Civil Code proposed by members of the Seimas Aušrinė Armonaitė and Viktorija Čmilytė-Nielsen.
They present a society as the cohabitation of two single individuals, building a family relationship without registering a marriage based on a continuous emotional bond, mutual understanding, responsibility, respect, shared parenting and the like.
“The main change is that in the proposed project we focused on the institute of registered companies. This means that the association’s regulation comes into force when the partners register it according to the procedure provided by law, ”TV Raskevičius told tv3.lt.
Of course, in the hands of the coalition partners, the law can change significantly. However, TV Raskevičius hopes that the parties, by adding their proposals to the amendments, will find a consensus.
“This is the goal of the common format to take into account those comments and suggestions as much as possible, and to make the project as divisive as possible, and to join political forces in the Seimas as much as possible,” said the politician.
The public will also have a voice
Coalition partners are expected to discuss the bill within a week, then it could be registered with the Seimas before the spring session, which begins March 10.
“We will see how we can move forward from then on. But we have clearly said that we would like to register that project in late February or early March and consider it in the submission stage at the beginning of the spring session, taking into account of course , the workload of the Seimas ”, said TV Raskevičius.
However, the submission stage is not the final battle at the Seimas. After that, the bill would be discussed by the committees, then the Seimas would vote two more times and the law would have to be approved by President Gitanas Nausėda. TV Raskevičius also adds that the amendments will be coordinated with the public.
There will also be a process of coordination with the citizens. Of course, there will be various suggestions, ideas, perhaps there are alternatives to some projects registered by opponents. It seems to me that the process in which the public will consider that bill will be politically interesting, ”said the Seimas member.
TV Raskevičius has no doubt that these amendments will receive different opinions from the citizens. However, in his opinion, the results of the last Seimas elections showed that the public is willing to discuss association issues.
“We often manipulate in Lithuania that we are not yet mature for one thing or another. But it seems to me that the results of this election have shown that the public really wants to debate, and especially on this issue. Because the regulation of the Association in Lithuania does not cost anything, it just creates a situation where a certain group of society becomes better legally protected.It seems to me that this project is creating a common good for society.
Of course, I understand that certain groups in society have different attitudes and fears, perhaps earlier, but it seems to me that it is the duty of politicians to explain both those fears and explain what will be here in a language that people can. I understand ”, said the president of the Human Rights committee.
He also emphasized that couples law will not only serve same-sex couples, but also opposite-sex couples who choose not to marry for various reasons.
True, 2017 Amendments to the Civil Code submitted to the Seimas by A. Armonaitė and V. Čmilytė-Nielsen were rejected at the submission stage: they received only 29 votes of support. A similar proposal from the Seimas members did not receive support in either 2015 or 2011.
The Civil Code provides for the possibility of legalizing associations from 2001. However, only couples of different genders could benefit from an association under this regulation.
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