The vote on rejecting the Cohabitation Bill at the first reading resulted in a tie in the Legal Affairs Committee. The Plenary Assembly will decide tomorrow whether the Bill will be pursued again in autumn or voted out of the legislative proceeding. 

The Committee voted today on a proposal to reject the Bill at the Plenary sitting tomorrow; the proposal received five votes in favour and five against. This means that the Committee did not support the proposal. 

Under the Riigikogu Rules of Procedure and Internal Rules Act this means that if no faction makes a proposal to reject the Bill from the proceeding, the reading of the Bill will be terminated without a vote and motions to amend can be made until 12 September. 

The Cohabitation Bill (650 SE), initiated by 40 MPs, gives cohabiting but not married couples the right to register their civil relationship and thus regulate their legal relations. The scope of application of the Cohabitation Bill involves the procedure for signing a cohabitation agreement, the rights and responsibilities of the registered civil partners, and the conditions for terminating the agreement. The Bill gives the right to register a civil partnership to same sex couples as well. 

The Riigikogu Press Service