Estonia, Law and Regulations, Legislation, Society

38 MPs voted against the law, 10 people abstained from voting.

The bill, initiated by 40 members of the Riigikogu, gives the persons living in non-marital cohabitation, regardless of their gender, the right to register their civil relationship and regulate their mutual legal relations as well as their legal relations with third persons. The scope of application of the bill covers the procedure for entering into a cohabitation agreement, the rights and responsibilities of registered civil partners, and the bases for terminating the cohabitation agreement. The cohabitation agreement is certified by a notary. The agreement and the proprietary relationship chosen in the agreement will be entered in the register.

Postimees reports that the existence of the cohabitation agreement should simplify application for social benefits, hospital visits and granting agreement for medical procedures. The registered partners can adopt only the biological children of their other partner or a child adopted by their partner before the cohabitation agreement was concluded. Exceptions are allowed if the court decides that this requirement is unfair, for example when a man and a woman cannot have children for medical reasons.

If the President promulgates the cohabitation law, it will be valid starting 2016. The Chairman of the Riigikogu Legal Affairs Committee Neeme Suur said on Wednesday that for the law to come in force in 2016, its implementation acts have to be approved first, that enable to implement the law in reality. These have to be prepared in collaboration of many ministries. "The number of legislative acts that are connected to this law, is now reported at 87, but whether they shall all be changed, and at what point, it is a matter for further decision-making," Suur told Postimees. However, he said that about a dozen big changes that are essential to the implementation of the law need to be made. These relate to registration and judicial norms that were originally included in the draft law, but that the Legal Commission took out of the bill. This step also meant that instead of the 51 votes that the original draft law needed for adoption, now it could be approved by a simple majority.

Suur said that it is highly likely that the implementation acts will have to be approved by the next Riigikogu to be elected on March 1 next year.