MPs still debating civil partnerships

DISCUSSION of a bill on civil partnerships appeared to be drawing to an end, it emerged on Thursday, as MPs continued to go through its articles one by one.

“It is a difficult bill and we do not want to legalise or create a third form of marriage,” DIKO MP Athina Kyriakidou said.

The intention was to establish the civil union of two people, gay or straight, and ensure their pension or hereditary rights, she said.

“We have almost finished the discussion concerning the bill on civil cohabitation in the Republic,” she said, adding that one of the basic provisions would be that people who decide to go through with it would not be able to adopt children.

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.