Senate Judicial Committee Rejects Civil Partnership Proposal

The bill establishes the institution of civil partnership for couples who do not want to marry, including same-sex couples.

It would also grant them the same rights and obligations regarding social and health insurance, labor and social assistance as those of married couples, while foreign citizens who will be in a civil partnership with a Romanian citizen benefit from the same procedure of gaining citizenship as they would through marriage.

The initiative was announced by the ruling Social Democrat Party, but parliamentary support for it appears to have faltered after a referendum which would block same-sex marriage failed to reach the required vote threshold on October 6 and 7.

The Romanian Senate will vote on the bill as the first chamber, with the Lower Chamber to a deciding body on the matter.