The Polish government introduced a draft law aiming to allow civil unions under Polish law on Friday. The law would reverse Poland’s current ban on civil partnerships and failure to recognize civil partnerships from other nations.

The bill would recognize the civil partnership between two unmarried adults upon registration. Along with the legal recognition, civil partners also enjoy marital rights to taxation, healthcare, inheritance and maintenance. However, local organization Miłość Nie Wyklucza highlighted that the draft law does not give civil partners the right to adoption and allows room for registry officials to discriminate against same-sex couples.

Historically, Poland has been reticent to recognize LGBT marriage rights. Last year, the European Court of Human Rights found that Poland’s ban on registering LGBT civil unions posed hardships on same-sex couples to regulate important aspects of their lives, violating their right to privacy under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

Before 2023, Poland’s right-wing Law and Justice Party controlled the government and were hostile to marriage equality. In 2023, elections saw the ascension of a new, less conservative coalition government led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s Civic Platform party. In July, Tusk affirmed his hope to support a generally liberal agenda, stating on X (formerly Twitter) that the government will vote to legalize civil partnership and decriminalize abortion.

Within the coalition government, there is significant excitement about the draft legislation, which was a key proposition of the Civic Platform in the 2023 election. Minister of Equality Katarzyna Kotula stated that the bill reflects years of efforts by LGBT organizations and civil society.

However, it is not clear whether the draft law will pass in Poland’s parliament. Not all of the Tusk government’s liberalization efforts have succeeded. For example, the parliament blocked a draft law concerning decriminalizing consensual abortion assistance in July. Tusk’s coalition is broad, meaning some of its more conservative members remain unsupportive of its liberalizing policy.

The draft law will first be reviewed by committees before being brought to a vote in parliament.