Overview
- The EU’s top court ruled that member states must recognize lawful same-sex marriages of EU citizens conducted elsewhere in the bloc.
- The court found Poland acted unlawfully by refusing to transcribe the German marriage of two Polish citizens who married in Berlin in 2018.
- Judges said non-recognition violates the freedom to move and reside and the right to respect for private and family life.
- The ruling is binding across the EU and concerns recognition only, not the legalization of same-sex marriage within national law.
- In Poland, a civil partnerships bill is being drafted but faces coalition resistance, and the president has pledged to veto measures seen as undermining marriage’s constitutional status.