The proposal to extend legal cohabitation rights to gay couples living together was rejected last week by the Greek parliament’s public administration committee.

The reform, proposed by the main opposition PASOK party, was rejected as it only attracted the support of the Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA).

PASOK called for the extension but a spokesperson for the Karamanlis government condemned PASOK’s proposal as “contradictory and ill-considered.”

The Justice Minister Nikos Dendias responded to the decision of the parliamentary committee by saying that the government would “investigate the issue further” and would “not turn a deaf ear” to gay rights.

The previous Justice Minister Sotiris Hatzigakis had stressed last October that the cohabitation law would not be extended to gay couples.