COUPLES wanting to get married at just two weeks notice will have to pay £90 more than the usual fee for a civil wedding according to a new bill, reports said yesterday.
Civil weddings carried out less than 15 days after applying for a licence will cost £165, compared to the usual £75 fee. The proposal was put to the House Legal Affairs Committee this week.
Following EU harmonisation directives, the committee was asked to examine and regulate the law on civil marriages before the end of last year, AKEL deputy Agis Agapiou told the Cyprus Mail. But by Tuesday deputies had still not been able to agree on a number of final details and postponed voting on the new law until May this year. In fact, the committee was forced to call upon the Attorney-general’s office to make new proposals concerning some of the issues, with special reference made to marriages carried out by small religious groups.
There was, however, almost unanimous agreement concerning a number of key issues: marriage could only take place between a man and a woman; civil wedding ceremonies could only be performed by mayors, members of the municipal council or people authorised to do so by appointment of the Cabinet; and faulty weddings would be considered null and void, although children born to the couple would be recognised as legitimate with their full rights in place.
Under the new law, any religious marriage ceremony carried out according to Greek Orthodox Church laws or other religious groups recognised by to the Republic’s constitution (such as Maronites, Armenians and Roman Catholics) would be valid.
The new law will also tighten legislation on marriages of convenience. A Cypriot found guilty of marrying a foreigner purely so that they could stay in the country and obtain Cypriot nationality would be penalised harshly, the deputies agreed.
Furthermore no second marriage could be carried out if either partner had not been divorced in a civil court; blood relation marriages would be considered illegal; and the dissolution of a marriage could result from irrevocable differences between a couple after they had been separated for a period of five years or one of the two had abandoned the family home. Adultery, bigamy, the breakdown of spousal relations and a sex change would still be considered serious grounds for divorce, agreed the committee.
The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.
