The European Court of Justice, the continent’s highest court, ruled Tuesday that under EU law, Poland must recognize the marriage of two men who relocated from Germany. However, judges ruled Poland was not required to lift its ban on gay marriage. File photo by Julien Warnand/EPA-EFE
Nov. 25 (UPI) — The European Court of Justice ruled Thursday that European Union member nations must recognize the same-sex marriages of couples relocating from another EU state, even if same-sex unions are not permitted under their domestic law.
Judges in the court in Luxembourg, ruling in the case of two men lawfully married in Germany who were denied recognition of their union by authorities in Poland on their return to their home country, said it violated their fundamental right to a “normal family life,” the ECJ said in a news release.
The case was referred to the ECJ by Poland’s Supreme Court where the men were appealing against authorities’ refusal to transcribe their German marriage certificate into the civil register so that their marriage would be recognized, on grounds same-sex marriage is not legal in Poland.
Poland is a largely Catholic, socially conservative nation where LGBT rights are highly controversial import from permissive societies and LGBT-free zones are common.
The landmark decision said that while rules governing marriage fell under individual member states’ domestic law, they must comply with EU law in exercising that power.
Given EU citizens’ right to move and reside in any of the 27 member nations, couples who have built a family life in a host country “must have the certainty to be able to pursue that family life upon returning to their member state of origin,” the ruling said.
The judge said that where couples had opted to move, bans may cause serious inconvenience at administrative, professional and private levels, forcing spouses to “live as unmarried persons” in their own country.
“Such a refusal is contrary to EU law. It infringes not only the freedom to move and reside, but also the fundamental right to respect for private and family life,” the ruling states.
However, while the decision sets a precedent for recognition of same-sex marriage across the bloc it only mandates equal treatment of marriages conducted abroad, regardless of the sex of the couples.
It does not override national laws prohibiting same-sex marriage or require member states to provide for marriage between persons of the same sex.
The matter now returns to the Polish court, which must instruct authorities to officially recognize the couple’s marriage, but it can decide how that is done.
The case is an extension of a historic 2018 ECJ ruling that said married same-sex couples who were EU citizens had the legal right to live in any EU country, including nations that did not recognize same-sex unions.
Of the bloc’s 27 member states. at least two — Slovakia and Hungary — have legal or constitutional bans on same-sex marriage.
However, both allow same-sex couples a mechanism for their relationship to be legally recognized.