The European Court of Justice (ECJ), which is the European Union’s (EU) top court, ruled that all EU member states are obliged to recognize a same-sex marriage between two EU citizens that had been “lawfully concluded in another member state”.
The ruling was made after a Polish couple who married in Berlin in 2018 were denied recognition when they moved to Poland, mainly because Polish law still does not recognize same-sex marriage.
For the ECJ, Polish domestic law would not have to be changed to recognize marriages between people of the same sex.
In the EU, the Netherlands was the first to recognize same-sex unions in 2001, with a number of other EU countries following suit. But others, such as Poland, Hungary and Slovakia, still refuse to recognize marriage equality.
According to the ECJ said, marriage rules fall within each member state’s competence, and yet “countries were required to comply with EU law in exercising that competence”.
The ECJ added: “In particular by virtue of marriage, they must have the certainty to be able to pursue that family life upon returning to their member state of origin.”
Forcing the couples to live as an unmarried couple in Poland, therefore, was contrary to EU law and infringed their rights since as EU citizens, the Polish couple who married in Germany had the right to freedom of movement and the right to lead a family life no matter where they may choose to be in EU.
Poland is currently helmed by an anti-LGBTQIA+ president Karol Nawrocki.
