James Debono The government is drafting a white paper on a law to regulate cohabiting couples, Justice Minister Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici told parliament on Monday in reply to a parliamentary question by PN whip David Agius.
When contacted a spokesperson for the Minister confirmed that work on the new white paper started last month but would not give any deadline for the presentation of the white paper.
“It would be difficult to give a time frame because after the white paper is finalised, it will still have to be discussed by the cabinet,” Ministry spokesperson Darrel Pace told MaltaToday.
A white paper is normally issued to ensure wide public consultation before a law is actually discussed in parliament.
Since his re-election, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi has repeatedly promised that his present administration will honour an electoral commitment made by the PN in 1998, to recognize the rights and obligations of cohabiting couples.
But he has categorically declared that he has no intention to introduce divorce.
By granting very basic rights to cohabiting couples without introducing divorce, the government would give an official blessing to the Maltese anomaly which forces thousands of families and children to live in cohabitation simply because remarriage is not an option for them.
Significantly, while acknowledging the need for legislative changes to establish the individual rights and obligations of cohabiting couples, the Bishops have lashed out against any proposal to grant cohabiting couples the same rights as married couples. “We would really be destroying the family when all sorts of cohabiting arrangements are called family”, Bishop Mario Grech warned in May.
Since cohabitation is not legally recognised, people enter into such relationships at their own peril, denied the legal protection accorded to married couples.
For in the absence of laws regulating cohabitation, people can be thrown out of their partner’s home despite having lived in it for many years.
Statistics show that 25% of all Maltese children are born out of wedlock. Nine per cent claim that the father of the offspring is unknown.
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