The much debated new Family Code finally became a fact after Parliament adopted, on June 12, the document that will come into force on October 1 2009. It is the first major change in the country’s legislation regarding family matters such as marriages, child support, adoptions and divorces since the current version was introduced in 1985 after minor tinkering in 2003.

Since 2003, however, MPs have had a busy agenda vis-a-vis the Family Code, most notably concerning the vexed issue of the legal status of unmarried couples who cohabit.

Once deemed rather immoral, many Bulgarian couples now live together either for personal or economic reasons. Statistics show that about 300 000 couples currently cohabit outside marriage. In a country of less than eight million people, this is no insignificant figure. So the new Family Code had to address whether their choice to avoid a formal commitment would be accorded equal status under the law. In the event, MPs decided not to recognise cohabitation as equal to marriage. By rejecting an amendment that would have created a level playing field, MPs left the children of unmarried couples legally disadvantaged compared to married couples’ children.

Currently, men who are not married to the mother of their child would have to formally recognise the child as their own, while married couples do not have to do so. That way many children face the possibility of not being recognised by their (unmarried) fathers. Additionally, if unmarried couples had been accorded the same legal status as married couples, fathers would have been legally obliged to provide financial support to their family in case of a split. The draft bill provided that unmarried couples would only have to register as such at their respective municipalities.

The Bulgarian Orthodox Church and other religious groups opposed the move to place unmarried couples on a level footing with married couples. This makes Bulgaria only the third country in Europe, alongside Russia and Moldova, to fail to recognise cohabitation as a legal equivalent to marriage.

The other issue
Another sensitive subject surrounding cohabitation concerns gay couples. Gay marriage became an issue during the campaign for the June 7 elections for Bulgarian members of European Parliament. Not a single MEP candidate supported legalising gay marriage in Bulgaria. Liberal candidates claimed that now was not the time to raise the issue in Bulgaria.

The more conservative politicians simply rejected it out of hand. Currently, gay couples live under a form of cohabitation. If the Family Code had recognised this as equal to marriage, gay activists would have had legal grounds to demand the same rights as heterosexual couples. The contentious issue of raising children would also have had to be considered. By refusing to adopt the change MPs simply decided to avoid the question of whether gay marriages should be recognised in Bulgaria.

Breakthrough  
The new Family Code might have not recognised cohabitation as equal to marriage but it did introduce changes to ease divorce and the adoption of children.    
From October 1, authorities will have the right to put a child up for adoption in case its biological parents withhold contact for six months. The amendment was put forward by the Justice Ministry and the association of organisations accredited to serve as intermediaries in international adoption procedures. It also had the support of the Social and Labour Policy Ministry.

It is designed to solve problems faced by many children currently abandoned in homes who lack parental consent for being put up for adoption, an obstacle that stalls or eliminates the process of their adoption.

Another amendment was the introduction of pre-nuptial contracts to regulate which spouse pays alimony in case of divorce and who will win custody of the children and the family home.

Under current Bulgarian law, all family property and assets acquired after a marriage must be divided equally in case of divorce. This tends to turn divorce cases into prolonged processes. With the introduction of pre-nuptial agreements, the plan is for cases to last no longer than one court sitting. Parliament also enabled fast-track divorces. Currently, in order to get a divorce on grounds of mutual consent a couple could apply for one only after three years of marriage. The new amendment makes it possible to get a divorce a day after the wedding.