The Latvian parliament Saeima on Thursday adopted amendments to eight laws legislating same-sex partnership, the country’s public broadcaster LSM has reported.
The Latvian parliament adopted the package of laws three years after the Constitutional Court’s ruling emphasized the state’s duty to protect the families of same-sex couples.
The partnership laws stipulate that two adults who have close, personal relationship and share a household will be able to enter into a partnership by a notarial agreement.
They also allow people to receive information about their partner’s health from medical institutions and entitle them to other social guarantees.
Before the vote, the opposition announced that it would ask the Latvian president not to sign the amendments to collect signatures for a referendum.
If at least 34 MPs ask the president not to sign the new law, the president must suspend its entry into force. At least 154,241 signatures must then be collected within two months.
On May 31, the Latvian parliament elected Edgars Rinkēvičs as the first openly gay president of the country.
Currently, Lithuanian laws do not recognise civil partnerships either between same-sex or opposite-sex partners. Several previous attempts to legislate civil partnership fell through at an early stage of the parliamentary process.
In May, the civil union bill aimed at legally regulating relations between same-sex partners passed its second reading in the parliament by a narrow margin. Politicians say that the autumn Seimas session is the last chance to pass the bill.
In June, the Estonian parliament voted in favour of legalising same-sex marriage, becoming the first Baltic state to do so.
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