Polish parliament moves forward with bills granting legal rights to unmarried couples, including same-sex partners.
Committee Formation
The Sejm on Friday rejected proposals to dismiss in first reading two government bills aimed at regulating informal relationships. Both government proposals – the Act on the Status of a Closest Person in a Relationship and the Act introducing its provisions – have been referred to a newly appointed extraordinary committee.
This committee will work over the coming months on the government-proposed changes designed to facilitate life for same-sex couples or those who for various reasons do not wish to marry.
Pasławska to Lead Committee?
The composition of the committee is to be selected at the next Sejm sitting. It is not excluded that Urszula Pasławska from PSL – one of the architects of the agreement between the agrarians and the Left – will chair it.
This agreement last autumn allowed unblocking government work on the bills concerning informal relationships. At that time, the titles of the projects also changed – originally they contained the phrase “partnerships” unacceptable to the right and President Karol Nawrocki.
Timeline for Legislation
From interlocutors in the Left and PSL, we hear a consistent declaration of willingness to quickly process the government projects. “I think this is a matter of at most a few months, we will certainly not drag anything out and work on these bills indefinitely,” Equality Minister Katarzyna Kotula from the Left tells us.
The work may take several months mainly because the second bill – the implementing bill – counts over 300 pages and assumes changes to several dozen laws. It regulates issues such as joint tax filing, inheritance rights, burial of a deceased partner, and hospital visitation rights.
Presidential Position
Although there should be no problem with passing the laws within the governing coalition itself, it is unlikely that President Nawrocki would sign them. PSL MPs discussed this with him two weeks ago during a meeting at the Presidential Palace.
“I get the impression that the President has such a ‘sinusoid’ when it comes to cooperation with the government. Not long ago it seemed that it was better, that there would be a chance to sign the status of closest person bill. Now it’s bad again again,” admits a disappointed PSL politician.
Compromise Possibilities
Nevertheless, both the agrarians and Katarzyna Kotula are ready to talk with the President himself or his ministers. The matter of the laws concerning informal relationships is to be dealt with in the Presidential Chancellery by Paweł Szefernaker, former deputy head of MSWiA in the Mateusz Morawiecki government.
Urszula Pasławska, in turn, sits in the Parliamentary Council at the President’s office. This, according to our interlocutors in the ruling coalition, also increases the chance that arguments for signing the status of closest person bill will reach Karol Nawrocki.
Bill Content
Finally, the bill on the status of the closest person in a relationship and cohabitation agreement provides for the possibility of concluding a relationship in the form of a civil-law notarial deed, which would then be registered in the USC.
Persons who decide on this solution would, among other things, be entitled to joint filing in case of community of property, the possibility of exemption from inheritance and gift tax, right to care allowance, right to family pension after a deceased partner, inheritance rights, and the possibility of covering the partner with health insurance. It also grants the right to decide on burial or access to health information, medical documentation, and decisions.