(CS) The Luxembourg parliament's legal affairs committee on Wednesday gave the green light for bill n°6172A, granting marriage and adoption to same-sex couples.

The bill, which also includes reforms on other aspects of family law, was first introduced at the Luxembourg Chamber of Deputies in May 2012, and has taken over two years to pass to a vote in parliament.

Several changes were made along the way. Most importantly, same-sex couples were granted the right to both closed and open adoption. A previous version of the bill had foreseen that same-sex couples would only be allowed open adoption, in which birth parents retain access to information about their child.

The Luxembourg State Council, however, ruled that this was discriminatory and threatened to withhold approval should closed adoption not be made available to same-sex couples also.

The bill is now ready to pass to parliament for a vote, which is expected after the Pentecost holidays and before the summer.

In the legal affairs committee the bill got the thumbs up from representatives from all three government parties, as well as opposition party CSV. Conservative party ADR meanwhile spoke out against the reform.

The bill also includes new provisions in the fight against forced marriage, as well as fixing the legal minimum age to get married at 18 and abolishing the obligatory medical exam for couples before civil marriage.

Luxembourg will be the ninth EU member state to introduce same-sex marriage, following legislation in the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Sweden, Portugal, Denmark, France and the UK.

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