Austria’s new civil union legislation will not allow same-sex couples to register their partnership in a ceremony at their local registry office.
The provisio was part of a compromise thrashed out under pressure from the conservatives in the coalition Government.
The women’s affairs minister Gabriele Heinisch-Hosek, a member of the Socialist majority party, who was responsible for the legislation, said the law was “incomplete” with a registry office ban and said it was only a “temporary” measure.
“I think this is something we will keep under discussion,” said SPÖ chancellor Werner Faymann of the deal, reached yesterday at 6am after an all-night negotiating session. Meanwhile ÖVP leader Josef Pröll said his party had “gone far enough” by “agreeing to what was possible”.
The necessary legislation was agreed on Tuesday in a compromise between the ruling Social Democrats (SPÖ) and their junior, conservative coalition partners, the People’s Party (ÖVP). It gives same-sex couples identical rights to married couples in financial affairs such as tax, pension and maintenance.
The Irish Government’s Civil Partnership Bill gives same-sex couples the same rights, but also gives cohabiting couples pension, maintenance and inheritance rights.
Adoption rights and access to artificial insemination as a couple will not be granted.
The law has come in for heavy criticism in Austria, with the country’s Catholic bishops describing the measure as “unnecessary”.