The Hungarian
government next week will submit draft legislation to
parliament allowing unmarried and gay couples to register
their relationships.
The bill would
give them many of the same benefits currently granted only
to married couples, including rights of inheritance or to
take the other's name, government spokesman David
Daroczi said Friday.
It would not,
however, give unmarried couples the right to adopt children
together. Daroczi said the new law could take effect from
January 1, 2009.
''The
government's objective is to have order, to finally make the
laws conform to people's changed living
circumstances,'' the prime minister's office said in a
statement.
According to
government figures, there were some 349,000 unmarried
couples in Hungary in 2005, around 12.2% of all families,
compared with 62,000 in 1970, or around 2.1% of the
total.
About 120 other
laws would have to be modified to accommodate domestic
partnerships, including many that would require a two-thirds
majority vote among lawmakers to pass and, therefore,
support from the center-right opposition.
Tibor Navracsics,
parliamentary faction leader of Fidesz, the main
center-right opposition party, said party members had not
yet seen the draft bill so could not say yet if they
would support it.
The government
coalition led by Socialist prime minister Ferenc Gyurcsany
controls 54% of the 386 seats in parliament.
Couples could
dissolve a registered domestic partnership by testifying to
a public notary, as long as they had no children together
and had agreed on how to divide their possessions. By
contrast, married couples must be divorced by a judge.
While men and
women can get married under the age of 18 with a special
permit, only those 18 or older will be able to register
their domestic partnerships. (AP)
