Justice minister defends cohabitation agreements

A day after Archbishop Ieronymos, the head of the Church of Greece, attacked cohabitation agreements as a ?poor imitation? of marriage, Justice Minister Nikos Paraskevopoulos defended the pact as well as plans to extend it to same-sex couples.

?I do realize the for the Church, [sexual] contact between same-sex partners is a sin; however, I am also aware that for the Constitution this is a right to self-determination and difference,? the minister said on Thursday.

In a letter to Paraskevopoulos made public Wednesday, Ieronymos described cohabitation agreements as ?a neoliberal rewarding of irresponsibility in interpersonal relations which it relegates to simple transaction.? He also attacked a bill designed to extend the right to gay couples for allegedly paving the way to the ?homosexual family.?

In his comments on Thursday, Paraskevopoulos also referred to the issue of adoptions by gay couples.

?The gravity of these issues means that there should be no haste. They will obviously be the subject of a debate in the context of an overall re-evaluation of family law where all stakeholders, and the Church, will have the opportunity to speak their mind.?

Greece?s failure to apply the same law to same-sex couples has already landed the country in hot water with the European Court of Human Rights.