[JURIST] The Hungarian parliament [official website, in Hungarian] Monday voted 185 to 164 to recognize civil partnerships between same-sex couples, giving them the same inheritance, tax, and financial rights as married heterosexual couples. Same-sex couples will not, however, be able to adopt children. Nine parliamentarians abstained from voting. The new law will take effect in January 2009. Reuters has more.

Same-sex marriage [JURIST news archive] per se is not recognized in any of Europe's former eastern-bloc states, although the Czech Republic and Slovenia do recognize registered same-sex partnerships. In February 2006, Czech Republic President Vaclav Klaus vetoed a bill [JURIST report] that would have provided same-sex partners with access to medical information, property inheritance, and the right to raise children equal to that of married couples, among other things. Klaus said that the bill extended "state interventions into people's lives." The Czech Republic eventually legalized same-sex partnerships [Radio Prague report] in July 2006.