Sorry, I think we are talking of the same thing. In Germany that is the way it is. Civil union and marriage is equivalent, you dont have to get married at a church, the only important thing is to go to the state for a few minutes and tell them basically.

I thought that the problem was that the state still has to accept things such as (whatever you call it lets say) unions of things such as same sex partner and so.

Problem is the civil union is mostly historically influenced often (tends to be less these days)