The Swiss parliament has extended by two years its deadline for deciding on allowing gay marriage. A gay rights' group has welcomed the move to allow the issues to be looked into in more detail.

Parliament has given a parliamentary legal affairs committee until summer 2019 to draw up a bill on implementing the “Marriage for everyone”external link parliamentary initiative, which calls for gay couples to be allowed to marry. The practice is currently outlawed in Switzerland.

The decision to delay was attributed to the need to clarify certain legal issues with the federal administration. A committee spokesman said this meant looking into expected law changes in the fields of tax and social security, adoption and reproductive medicine.

A small minority of representatives from the rightwing Swiss People’s Party on Friday called for the initiative, put forward by the centrist Liberal Green Party, to be dropped.

Yves Nidegger said “marriage for all” was already covered by registered partnerships in Switzerland and it was not necessary to reconsider the issue. His arguments were not shared by a majority of parliamentarians Read more via Swiss Info