ILGA-Europe welcomes this important initiative by the European Commission which for the first time proposes clear regulations that would provide legal certainty to both bi-national married and registered couples in dealing with property issues following a divorce/separation or the death of one partner.
However, ILGA-Europe is concerned with the fact that the proposal comes in the form of two separate regulations – one for married couples, and the other for couples in registered partnerships. While acknowledging the differences between marriage and registered partnership, ILGA-Europe’s mapping of existing marriage and registered partnership legislations in the EU shows that in virtually all cases, the substance of the property rights regimes are identical under both institutions and as a result the separation of marriage and registered partnership into two separate regulations was unnecessary.
As a matter of fact, there is strong over representation of different-sex couples in marriage, and same-sex couples in registered partnerships. In this context, ILGA-Europe is concerned that separate proposals could give rise to a hierarchy of rights and lead to indirect discrimination on the ground of sexual orientation and marital status, irrespective of the gender neutral language used in the formulation of the two proposals.
