Same-sex marriage in Belgium 14 December and published on 23 December 1999 made the Act of statutory cohabitation go into effect on 1 January 2000. During 1999, the PS (French-speaking Social Democrats) and Ecolo (French-speaking Greens) also announced they agreed to legalise same-sex marriage. At that point, the only remaining party in Government that opposed same-sex marriage was the French-speaking liberal PRL (later merged into MR), mainly because it was opposed to adoption rights for same-sex couples. PRL agreed not to block same-sex marriage if adoption rights are excluded. As the first same-sex marriage in the Netherlands was performed on 1 April 2001, the
Same-sex marriage in Luxembourg on 9 July 2004 and took effect on 1 November 2004. The partnerships, which are based on the French civil solidarity pact (PACS), are available for same-sex and opposite-sex couples. These partnerships provide many of the rights of marriage in relation to access to welfare benefits and fiscal advantages but not the same as marriage. They do not give the right to jointly adopt children. In 2011, 88,1% of Luxembourg couples were married, 2,7% were in a partnership and 9,1% were cohabiting. The ruling Christian Social People's Party until 2009 was opposed to same-sex marriage, even though the Prime Minister,