The new Family Code proposed by the Bulgarian Cabinet sought to deal with many issues at the same time - cohabitation, ending lengthy divorce procedures, foreign adoptions and even, seemingly if only by being silent on the issue, gay marriage. Reaching Parliament this past week, the proposals descended into controversy

The amendments are the first substantial revisions to the Family Code since the current version was introduced in 1985, after some minor tinkering in 2003. The proposed changes, if approved, will for the first time in Bulgaria regulate ante-nuptial contracts, and also enable fast-track divorces. An ante-nuptial contract will regulate who of the spouses will have to pay alimony in case of divorce and who will get custody of children and possession of the family home.

Under current Bulgarian law, all family property and assets acquired after a marriage must be divided equally in the event of divorce, which tends to turn divorce cases into prolonged processes. With the introduction of ante-nuptial agreements, the plan is for cases to last no longer than one court sitting.

The amendments to the Family Code will recognise cohabitation as a legal equivalent of marriage. The amendments will allow children to be put up for adoption if parents have behaved as absentees, leaving their children in state institutions for six months continuously.

Adoptions by foreigners will be allowed only if there are no suitable candidate adoptive parents within Bulgaria, according to the proposed code. A national register of adopters and an integrated information system on children subject to full adoption are to be introduced.

The rules about adoption will apply not only to children who are Bulgarian nationals but also to children who are foreign nationals normally staying in Bulgaria. The criteria for selecting an appropriate adoptive parent are set out in the code.

Children will be given the right of an opinion on all matters concerning them, including adoptions.

According to the proposed code, parents should take into account their children's views and desires, also taking into account the children's age, maturity level and interests.

Even before it reached its first reading debate in Parliament in the third week of September 2008, the code was the subject of diverse calls by various groups.

In July 2008, Bulgarian news agency BTA reported that Bulgaria's Commission for Protection Against Discrimination had called on Parliament to change the Family Code to give family rights to homosexual couples living together.
Commission chairperson Kemal Eyup said that changes should include removing the word "heterosexual" from the Code. This way all couples would have equal rights in terms of inheritance, he said.

On September 4, BTA reported that some NGOs and two right-wing political parties had called for a five-year moratorium on changes to the code pending public debate.

The Cabinet had ignored the views of civil society in drafting the legislation, they said.

"The possibility to register de facto cohabitation, provided for by the draft legislation, must be stopped by all means," Gergyovden Movement chairman Peter Stoyanovich said. He said that "this quasi marriage will undermine the marital institution".

"The proposed new Code does not create prerequisites to cope with the demographic crisis in this country and opens gaps in children's upbringing," Stoyanovich said.

According to Parents Association Chair Tsveta Brestnichka, the legalisation of de facto cohabitation would not protect the rights of the children because the party responsible for them was not specified in the code. "If the parents separate, the children may find themselves abandoned by both," she said.

The NGOs and two parties opposed to the proposals said that, if enacted, the new Family Code would also legalise polygamy and incest. Divorces would increase, too, they said in their petition sent to Parliament and other state authorities.

On September 17, President Georgi Purvanov President urged MPs to speed up the adoption of the new Family Code.

Speaking at public consultations on "Child and Family Care: a National Priority and Responsibility," organised by the Economic and Social Council, Purvanov cited experts as saying that the new draft proposes new, long awaited, solutions and regulations.

According to a September 25 report by Bulgarian National Television on the parliamentary debates, while some MPs held that exclusion of gay marriage was discriminatory, other attacks on the proposals came from the far-right, with ultra-nationalist Ataka party's Pavel Shopov saying that allowing legal cohabitation would reduce people to "herd marriages" at the level of monkeys.

Marriage was a sacrament ordained by God, Shopov said. He said that the code had been drafted under "external pressure" and was an attempt to hastily transform Bulgarian society.

Other MPs said that the drafting of the text was too vague and could permit one man to cohabit with several women at the same time. The debate also saw criticism from some quarters that allowing ante-nuptial contracts was tantamount to reducing marriage to a commercial transaction.

Martin Dimitrov of the centre-right Union of Democratic Forces said that the new code would decrease the number of marriages.

Right-wing MP Lyuben Dilov of Gergyovden said that if the real intention in the long term was to allow gay marriage, this should be admitted. He said that his party could not support the Family Code, even though there were some worthwhile provisions in it such as the new approach to adoptions and a provision for legal recognition of marriages in church.

Nadia Antonova of the Bulgarian Socialist Party-dominated Coalition for Bulgaria told Parliament that the most important change in the new code was that related to property relations between spouses. However, she called for improved clarity in the code as to what would happen in the event of a marriage terminating but where jointly-held property had been used to secure a debt.

- A constitutional footnote. This is an unofficial English translation of article 46 of the Bulgarian constitution, a text that not all of those participating in the public and parliamentary debate seemed to have made themselves aware of before emitting their views:

"(1) Matrimony shall be a free union between a man and a woman. Only a civil marriage shall be legal.
(2) Spouses shall have equal rights and obligations in matrimony and the family.
(3) The form of a marriage, the conditions and procedure for its conclusion and termination, and all private and material relations between the spouses shall be established by a law."