2. In this context, the Committee of Ministers observes that
in its judgment in
Schalk and Kopf v.
Austria of 24 June 2010, the Court’s Grand Chamber rejected
a complaint under Articles 12 and 14 by a same-sex couple that under
Austrian law marriage could be contracted only by two persons of
opposite sex. The Court held that the question whether to grant
same-sex couples access to marriage was a matter for each individual
State. In the more recent case of
Vallianatos
and Others v. Greece (7 November 2013), the Grand Chamber
considered the position with regard to civil partnerships and found
that, although there was no consensus, a trend was currently emerging
amongst the member States of the Council of Europe with regard to
the introduction of forms of legal recognition of same-sex relationships.
The Court did not rule on the question whether there was an obligation
under Article 8 of the Convention to put in place a civil partnership
system. However, in the case of
Vallianatos
and Others v. Greece, it stated that legislation that
enables only opposite-sex couples to register a “civil union” is,
in the absence of convincing and weighty reasons capable of justifying
the exclusion of same-sex couples, in violation of Article 14 taken
in conjunction with Article 8 of the Convention.
Note
