Civil union (Italy)

In Italy there does not exist any legislative recognition for the nonmarried couples, that they are couples of people of the same sex or sexes different.

During the last legislature much of bills of legal framing of the civil unions have summers deposited with the House of Commons and the Sénat, and since July 1st 2004, the bill of Franco Grillini, Député (Left Democrats) which dedicated a good part of its political activity to the creation of the Civil unions, is under discussion at the Commission of Justice and the House of Commons.

Exceptions

Even if the unions in fact do not have access to very the rights that the married couples, there are exceptions for certain categories of people:

Journalists: the partner can be beneficiary of the case of professional mutual insurance company;
Appointed: they have the same right as the journalists, but in more they can choose to transmit to them Survivor's pension widow to the surviving partner.

Private bills since 1986

In 1986, thanks to l'" Interparlamentare gives Comuniste " and with Arcigay (association for the rights of homosexual), the Italians speak, for the first time, of civil unions. In particular, the Senate rice Ersilia Salvato and Appointed S Romana Bianchi and Angela Bottari, which presents, with their respective Rooms private bills on the civil unions.

In 1988, under the impulse of Arcigay, Alma Agata Cappiello, lawyer E and parliamentary Socialist, presents the first Private bill for the recognition of the unions in fact, but this one will never be carried to the calendar of the legislature. This Cappiello proposal, which approached also the recognition of the homosexual couples, had all the same a great echo in the media (which by journalistic simplification spoke about " marriage of B" series;).

From the the Nineties the number of private bills for the civil unions presented, that it is with the House of Commons or the Italian Sénat, increase, just like the incentives of the the European Parliament for equalization between married boyfriends and homosexual couples and heterosexuals.

During the 13th legislature (of the May 9th 1996 with the May 29th 2001) at least ten private bill was presented (of Nichi Vendola, Luigi Manconi, Gloria Buffo, Ersilia Salvato, Graziano Cioni, Antonio Soda, Luciana Sbarbati, Antonio Lisi, Anna Maria De Luca, and Mauro Paissan). None never arrived at the day order of work of the Room, in particular because of the influence of the catholic hierarchy on the two coalitions.

During the last legislature (of the May 30th 2001 with the April 27th 2006), with the political activity of the deputy Free Grillini and the Italian Liberation movement merry, the debate on the approval of a proposal for PACS found an assent transverse. The July 8th 2002, hardly installed, Free Grillini, presented a private bill, very similar to that signed during the preceding legislature by the Soda deputy and copied on the model of the laws approved in the Scandinavian countries , initiated by the Denmark.

The union, the October 21st 2002, of Alessio De Giorgi and Christian Pierre Pianicucci (which has also French nationality) near the French Consulate with Rome according to the law on the PACS of October 1999 was a notable event in the debate in Italy. All two are besides contractors and organizers of the virtual community Gay.it on Internet, and engaged since of the years in Italian gay activism.

The very same day, Franco Grillini presented a new private bill, cosignée by 161 members of Parliament of center-left and currently under discussion at the commission of Justice of the House of Commons.

In September 2003, the the European Parliament approves a Résolution on the human rights in Europe which in a section dedicated to the discriminations based on the sexual orientation:

" request once again with the Member States to abolish any form of discrimination - legislative or de facto - whose are still victims the homosexual ones, in particular as regards right to the marriage and of adoption of children " (Al 81) and

" recommends to the Member States, generally, to recognize the relations which are not founded on the marriage - so much between people of different sexes than between of the same people sex - and to give to these people rights identical to those who are recognized with the married people, in particular by making the provisions which are essential in order to allow freedom of movement of the couples in the Union " (Al 85).

The recognition symbolic system of the civil unions

To request the approval of a national law on the civil unions, the movement LGBT required, as from the Nineties, at some Italian cities the institution, the communal level of registers of civil unions. In this case, for a couple (hétéro- or homosexual), the civil recording of their cohabitation has only one significance symbolic system, unless the Commune does not decide to add rights in rem to this value symbolic system (for example, the access to the popular residences).

By a decision of the October 21st 1993, the first commune to be itself equipped with a register, was Empoli (Toscane); however the Regional committee of Control (Co.Re.Co), disputed this communal deliberation afterwards hardly a month. It is in 2001 that the regional Administrative court Tuscan accepted the recourse of the Commune of Empoli against the Regional committee of Control, officially giving the free track to the register.

The June 7th 1996, Pisa follows the example of Empoli, but once again, the decision was refused by Co.Re.Co of Tuscany, on June 28th which is also the date commemorative of the riots of Stonewall (Gay pride). The July 7th 1996, the city succeeds in obtaining a register and the first couple to be registered there, the February 20th 1998, was an heterosexual couple.

Currently the cities to be itself equipped with a civil register of the civil unions are very numerous.

Areas and civil unions

In addition to the communes, some Italian Régions adopted statutes which precede a law on the civil unions, even homosexual.

Among the first areas with a statute there has to be equipped was the Calabria, the July 6th 2004. An article of this statute has the " recognition of the formations social, cultural, economic and political in which the human personality, the free course of their functions and activities are guaranteed " The reference to the new families, although masked, is clear.

The statute of the Toscane approved the July 19th 2004 is clearer. It " supports the valorization of the family based on the marriage " and, between the priority purposes of the Area, it created " recognition of the other forms of cohabitation " refusing " any form of Xenophobia and discrimination related on the ethnos group or the Sexual orientation ".

The statute of the Ombrie, approved the September 2nd 2004 is, him also, favorable to the civil unions. The area recognizes " the rights to the family and adopts each measure suitable to support the achievement of the duties entrusted by the Constitution " and " supports also the forms of cohabitation ".

The September 14th 2004, the Emilie-Romagna, recognized the importance " of the social formations through which the dignity of the people is expressed and developed and, within this framework, the role specific and specific to the family, offering the conditions for its effective development ".

The majority of the statutes referent to the Charter of the basic rights of the European Union which, in the basic rights of the person lay out, the " right to marry and constitute a family " .

The opening to the new families in the regional statutes was the object of a conflict between the Italian institutions. The Government of center-droite in place, at the time, disputed the statute of the Toscane, the Ombrie and the Emilie-Romagna, disputing " constitutionality of such provisions " in front of the Constitutional court. The latter pushed back the recourse formulated against the Ombrie and the Toscane.

See too

Civil union Homosexual marriage