The European Court of Human Rights made a final decision by majority vote concerning the case “Vallianatos and others vs Greece.” The Court did not find any convincing arguments for Greek law to exclude same-sex couples from civil unions that were introduced to the Greek law in 2008.
With its judgment, the Court condemned Greece for violation of the right to respect private and family life, as well as violation of provisions prohibiting discrimination, and ordered Greece to pay 5,000 euros plus court expenses to each of the plaintiffs.
The case “ Vallianatos and others vs Greece” concerns the “civil union” implemented in Greece by Law 3719/2008 and entitled “Reforms concerning family, children and society.” This law made improvements in the formal form of a “relationship,” enabling the persons involved to make their relationship legal in a more flexible framework in relation to that of marriage. The plaintiffs complained that the Law 3719/2008 is strictly about heterosexual couples excluding thereby any relations between homosexual people. They argued that the Greek State has introduced a distinction, which in their opinion, constitutes as discrimination against them.
The Court noted in its decision, that among the 19 member countries that have recognized the “civil union” as well as marriage, only Lithuania and Greece made the distinction for homosexuals, excluding same-sex couples.
The court decided that such a distinction, which prohibits people of the same-sex to come to such a union, was not necessary in order to achieve the purpose of the Law.
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