On March 24, Edwin Vassallo, as chairman of the Parliamentary Social Affairs Committee, announced a further round of public consultation with a view of formalising proposals that should become the basis for legislation regulating cohabitation.

Among the proposals up for consideration, the committee is debating the registration of cohabitating couples, which shall be referred to as civil unions. Those registered would benefit from a number of rights but also shoulder a number of responsibilities. Fiscal incentives, inheritance rights and obligations, social benefits and maintenance, along with custodial rights of children borne by such unions, would form the bulwark of the proposed reforms.

Cohabitation remains politically a difficult area. Finding a consensus on the changes needed in the legislative framework of these "new" family structures is like trying to cross a motorway on a unicycle - one rarely reaches a conclusion intact! The opinions and positions held by different groups are manifold and complex. There are a number of factors that make the regulation of cohabitation such a controversial issue.

Whether we like it or not, cohabitation in Malta is steadily increasing. People may be living together for a number of reasons. Partners may be testing compatibility or postponing marriage until financial security is achieved. Some couples prefer to cohabitate because it does not legally commit them for an extended period of time and, hence, it would be easier to establish or dissolve without the legal costs of legal separation. Yet, one suspects that the growing number of cohabitating couples may be because they are unable to legally re-marry because of the absence of divorce in Malta.

And these latter numbers are on the increase! According to a report by The Today Public Policy Institute, entitled For Worse, For Better? Re-marriage After Legal Separation' (2009), based on NSO statistics in 1995 there were 5,098 annulled marriages or legally-separated individuals in Malta. That constituted three per cent of the total 181,875 married individuals. Ten years later that figure had almost tripled to 13,354 making this pool of individuals a seven per cent proportion of married persons. To complicate matters the trend shows that this rate will rise to a staggering 35,000 by 2015.

These projections are highly contested especially by the Church but it remains a fact that the trend is definitely in place.

On the other hand, pro-divorce and concerned groups insist that this is contributing towards an anomalous situation of forced cohabitation with its subsequent unsavoury side effects. These pressure groups insist that, as Malta is one of only two countries in the world that does not provide for divorce, cohabitation is not a free choice. Since legally-separated individuals are unable to remarry unless their marriages are annulled or divorce obtained abroad, these people end up living not only in uncertainty but also in a legal limbo. To boot, Malta has so far failed to address cohabitation and, therefore, couples in such arrangements are not legally-recognised and denied the civil and legal protections accorded to married couples. This is evidently unsustainable and requires immediate address.

Many figures are bandied about in this continuingly fudged debate that make a serious discussion even more difficult. There is no doubt that legislators are caught between a rock and a hard place. The Church has made it clear it acknowledges the need for legislative changes to establish the individual rights and obligations of cohabitating couples but this only with serious reservations. At the same time, the Church insists that these provisions should not mirror married couples' rights. The Church has also made it clear that granting similar rights would be eroding the very fundamentals of the traditional family based on a lasting and binding understanding called marriage.

The political parties have conflicting views. While the Nationalist Party excludes divorce, it has for at least 12 years committed itself to finding an equitable and lasting solution to this impasse. On the other hand, the Labour Party has its own ideas. One proposal made by its leader is that, come the next election, should Labour win, Joseph Muscat as Prime Minister would present a Private Member's Bill to legislate in favour of divorce. Dr Muscat promises to give a free vote to his parliamentarians who would decide according to their consciences or wishes. To date, several opposition members of Parliament have already declared themselves against divorce making this proposal a non starter.

Some genuinely believe that cohabitation regulation presents an inadequate and impartial solution to the present situation. In this sense, the changes being proposed may become again mired in controversy. That would be very sad indeed! Some will use these changes to substantiate claims for divorce legislation. Others will accuse the government that these laws are a last line defence before the actual introduction of divorce.

Hopefully, the discussion will not be lost in a sea of hypotheses. As things stand, our legislators must understand the serious nature of the challenge. Clearly, they must be courageous in facing up to our present realities. Contemporaneously they must understand the delicate nature of regulating human behaviour for the common good and for the sake of our precious family.

info@carolinegalea.com

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