“Discussions are underway to reach a consensus that will allow the majority in parliament to support the law on civil partnerships,” says the Minister of Equality, Katarzyna Kotula. She emphasizes that the government’s project is a minimum effort, but should be used to its maximum to protect partners and children growing up in such families. The issue of so-called ‘small custody’ is particularly important. During the public and inter-ministerial consultations, hundreds of pages of comments and several thousand emails were received.
“We have already had public consultations and inter-ministerial consultations on the civil partnership bill, although a few ministries have asked for a few more days. We will analyze 7,000 emails, several hundred pages of comments from ministries, we will discuss them with individual ministers. We want this project to be as perfect as possible. From this minimum, which is this government project, we want to achieve the maximum in terms of protecting two adult people, but also the situation of the child in these families,” says Katarzyna Kotula for the Newseria Business agency.
In October, the drafts of the law on registered partnerships and the law introducing the law on registered partnerships were submitted for public consultation and inter-departmental agreement. The new regulations address issues concerning the manner of entering into a registered partnership – both by same-sex and different-sex partners, rights and obligations of people in partnerships or actual guardians of the child. These include granting burial rights, enabling statutory inheritance, exemption from inheritance and donation tax and civil law transactions, the possibility of joint tax returns of partners who have signed a property community agreement. The drafts also include issues of representing a partner before offices and courts, the right to a family pension in the case of the death of a partner and to a caretaker’s allowance in the case of the necessity to take care of a sick partner.
The provisions also provide for the introduction of ‘small custody’, under which a person in a partnership is entitled to participate in exercising ongoing care for a child living with them and under the parental authority of the other person in the partnership and their upbringing.
“Lack of regulation of the situation of children is institutional violence by the state against children who live in rainbow-colored families. In a situation where a husband and wife divorce, woman takes children and for example has a new partner, they live together for 10 or 15 years, together raising these children, we want this partner to have the right to make decisions in the scope of daily life situations, whether it’s a school trip, tooth extraction, or a driving course,” – indicates the Minister of Equality. “We know that there is no agreement on full internal adoption, but we acknowledge that there has to be some minimal security for children in this act.”
The provision of ‘small custody’ should apply to all couples who raise children and decide to enter into a partnership. It does not give parental rights, but it should make life easier for the child’s guardians.
“This is not a matter of ideology, but a matter of looking at the child’s right to family, the child’s right to some security. It is the state’s obligation to provide such safety to children,” emphasizes Katarzyna Kotula.
The issue of civil partnerships is also awaited by heterosexual couples living in informal relationships. The Ministry points out – citing the National Census of 2021 – that the number of such relationships is growing: there were 316.5 thousand in 2011 and 552.8 thousand in 2021, while the number of marriages is decreasing. This indicates a social need to increase the legal protection of families created by same-sex and different-sex couples who do not get married.
The Ipsos “LGBT+ Pride 2024” survey indicates that 67% of Poles support the conclusion of civil partnerships by same-sex couples. In contrast, the Ipsos poll for OKO.press and TOK FM, in cooperation with Love Does Not Exclude and the Campaign Against Homophobia, shows that 69% of respondents believe the biological parent’s partner should have the legal guarantee of adopting the child to secure his or her situation in case of the death of the biological parent.
Poland, along with Bulgaria, Lithuania, Slovakia, and Romania, are among the EU countries that do not anticipate the conclusion of an institutionalized partnership by same-sex persons in the form of marriage or a registered partnership. This possibility already exists in 22 EU countries and nine other European countries (Norway, Iceland, Great Britain, Switzerland, Andorra, Liechtenstein, San Marino, Monaco, Montenegro).
“We are returning to discussions at the political level to reach such a consensus that will allow the majority to support this project. I believe that this majority will exist, because the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights oblige us to introduce this solution in Poland. It depends on us what will be the scope of this law, broad enough to secure the rights of people living in informal same-sex relationships or heterosexual pairs, but also one that will allow us to get a majority in Parliament and in the Senate,” says the Minister of Equality.
According to the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, the existence of Poland’s obligation in terms of institutionalizing same-sex relationships is confirmed by two judgments of the European Court of Human Rights (from December 2023 and September 2024). The ECHR held Poland in violation of Article 8 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, i.e., the right to respect for family and private life. According to this judgment, Poland is obliged to provide a legal framework enabling same-sex couples to adequately recognize and protect their relationships. The protection of same-sex couples should be “adequate” and provide for material support rights, relate to taxes and inheritance, and impose rights and obligations on partners in terms of mutual assistance – as indicated in the description of the project’s purpose.
