by Hilary White
BRUSSELS, May 2, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The European Union continues to favour the homosexual movement’s program at the expense of national sovereignty and religious rights. A new law coming into effect today effectively orders the countries of the Union to “facilitate” homosexual partners who have “married” in their home countries and want to live or travel in countries where their unions are not legally recognized.
The law is intended to allow EU citizens to move around the Union as freely as they do within their own countries. The directive means that citizens within the EU will no longer be obliged to obtain a residence permit when moving to another member state. When registering in their new country, homosexual couples may use the European Courts to force sovereign countries to recognize their unions.
The law will force countries to allow nationals of other states to live permanently in the new country without visas or residency permits. In some places in the EU, such as Malta, immigration is extremely problematic due to limitations on space and economic and natural resources.
Although only five EU member states have ratified the decision, European justice commissioner Franco Frattini warned national governments that the law was “immediately applicable”– whether ratified or not.
The law applies not only to the states but to individuals who may move and then use the courts to force member states to comply. As of the compliance deadline today, only Austria, Denmark, Slovenia, Slovakia and the UK have ratified, with measures pending in France and Spain.
Three countries of the EU, the Netherlands, Belgium and Spain have laws which allow homosexuals to imitate lawful marriage. Britain, Germany and a number of other countries have accommodated homosexual unions with some form of civil recognition. Other states, however, such as Poland, Italy and Malta have resisted the push by lobbyists for “gay marriage” and the threat of coercion, becoming a common method of EU politics, is directed against them.
The law will require states to carry out investigations into the nature of the relationship and determine if the partners are in a “long-term stable relationship.”
“The main provision is that you can recognise marriages or partnerships only when the hosting country has similar provisions,” said Frattini.
“In those cases where there is no direct obligation to recognise, member states must facilitate entry and residence of partners in a durable relationship after a concrete assessment. This new provision will facilitate the situation of gay couples across Europe,” Frattini said.
Frattini is a former leader in the Italian Socialist party and a long time member of Silvio Berlusconi’s government. He was appointed to the EU to replace Rocco Buttiglione who, as a believing Catholic, was opposed to the homosexual movement’s legal inroads in European politics.
Buttlglione said the EU is advancing a leftist “soft totalitarianism,” that “wants to have a state religion. It is an atheist, nihilistic religion – but it is a religion that is obligatory for all.”