Nearly 39,000 support Lithuanians back European initiative on family definition

VILNIUS – Nearly 39,000 Lithuanian citizens supported the European initiative on family definition in the Baltic state, the Central Electoral Commission established.

The initiative Mum, Dad & Kids: European Citizens' Initiative to Protect Marriage and Family was supported by a total of over 39,000 citizens of Lithuania, in addition to more than 6,800 signing the electronic form.

The CEC check found 38,811 of the signatures in compliance with the requirements, therefore, initiators will be issued a certificate of the number of signatures collected in Lithuania.

The European citizens' initiative is aimed at incorporating into EU legislation the following definitions of marriage and family: "Marriage means a legal union between one man and one woman" and "family is based on marriage and/or descent". The definition also applies to a single mother or father and their children, however, same-sex partnerships would not be listed as families.

For the initiative was registered with the European Commission on Dec. 11 of 2015. For the document to be examined by the EC , it must be signed by at least 1 million EU citizens from at least seven member states. A certain minimum threshold of signatures is set for each country. The threshold was Lithuania was set at 8,250 votes.