Vilnius City Mayor Valdas Benkunskas says that the municipality’s Civil Registry Department will be able to temporarily offer a paper document certifying same-sex partnership registration, despite the Lithuanian Ministry of Justice and the Centre of Registers still not being able to process partnership applications.

After the Constitutional Court’s ruling of April 17, 2025, which recognized that the state’s inaction regarding civil ​​partnership violates the Constitution, the first district court decisions recognizing same-sex partnerships have started appearing in August.

The State‘s information systems are lagging behind though. According to Vilnius City Mayor V. Benkunskas, the partnerships will need to be registered in the information system for which the Ministry of Justice and the Center of Registers are responsible. However, the registers have not been adapted to the new partnership format yet.

“There is only about a week left until the court decision to form the first partnership in Lithuania comes into effect. Unfortunately, Lithuania still does not have the registers adapted to register it. Sources say that we may have to wait until the end of this year for them from the Ministry of Justice and the Centre of Registers. I really hope that this is not true,” said V. Benkunskas in a comment to the news agency ELTA.

According to the mayor of Vilnius, the municipal Civil Registry Department may offer a temporary solution to couples who have obtained the right to register their partnership through the courts. Instead of waiting for the registers to be adapted, the Municipality can issue a physical document certifying the partnership.

As more same-sex partnership cases reach the courts, it becomes increasingly important to make sure that the State‘s systems are ready for it. The Constitutional Court‘s ruling in April states that although the legislature has not yet adopted legal regulation of partnerships, a legal gap cannot be a basis for ignoring people’s rights.