European
Union nations that recognize same-sex unions as legal
marriages must grant surviving partners the same pension
rights as those given in traditional marriages, the EU
Court of Justice ruled Tuesday. The Luxembourg-based
court ruling was seen as a victory for a German man
who was denied his partner's retirement plan payments after
his partner died in 2005. The EU court said the
pension plan had discriminated against the man on the
grounds of sexual orientation because the men's
relationship had been recognized under German law as a
legally registered life partnership equivalent to a
traditional marriage.
European
Union nations that recognize same-sex unions as legal
marriages must grant surviving partners the same pension
rights as those given in traditional marriages, the EU
Court of Justice ruled Tuesday.
The
Luxembourg-based court ruling was seen as a victory for a
German man who was denied his partner's retirement
plan payments after his partner died in 2005.
The EU court said
pension plan had discriminated against the man on the
grounds of sexual orientation because the men's relationship
had been recognized under German law as a legally
registered life partnership equivalent to a
traditional marriage.
The court did not
say, however, that all 27 EU nations must recognize
same-sex unions, only that if they did they must grant life
partners the same benefits.
Today, 10 EU
nations do not recognize same-sex partnerships at all:
Bulgaria, Cyprus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland,
Romania, Slovakia, and Ireland, according to the
European branch of the International Lesbian and Gay
Association. France and Italy grant them very limited
rights, the group said.
But elsewhere in
the EU -- notably in the Netherlands, Denmark, and
Sweden -- life partnerships have acquired considerable
social rights in the last 20 years. (AP)
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