"Yesterday's conversation [between the three parties] highlighted the common understanding that we had already achieved up to this point. We will try to structure both the government's declaration and also put together short-term actionable plans by the end of the year, where we have to talk about the challenges related to electricity tariffs, the challenges that families face regarding credit payments, we need to find a way to ratify the Istanbul Convention as soon as possible, to agree on cohabitation regulations, on these short-term urgent tasks," Briškens stated.
Briškens noted that last year a Civil Union law was drafted by the Justice Ministry in response to long-running deliberations in the courts on providing legal protection to same-sex partners and their families.
However, the legislation was first held in lengthy limbo at the committee stage and ultimately rejected when Saeima members refused to carry it over from the 13th Saeima to the 14th Saeima (the law was in the system so long that parliamentary elections intervened).
"There is that level of ambition to fix this issue as a human rights issue, not as an ideological issue," Briškens said Tuesday.
"I look with some optimism, by the end of the year we can definitely find a certain framework to move it further towards approval."
Pushing for a same-sex partnership law has been a central plank of the Progressives' political program, which states: "We will promote the adoption and full application of the norms of the Civil Union Law, as well as stand up for marriage equality."
As previously reported by LSM, negotiations on the formation of a new three-party government coalition are ongoing and expected to take around another week. A Saeima vote on installing a new government is tenatively expected in mid-September.
