Poland Ordered to Recognize Same-Sex EU Marriages
Poland’s top court ruled that same-sex couples married in other EU countries can have their unions registered.
Poland’s Supreme Administrative Court has ordered a local civil registry to record the marriage of a Polish same-sex couple who wed in Germany in 2018.
The case involved JC-T, who holds both Polish and German citizenship, and MT, a Polish national. The couple married in Germany while living there under EU free-movement rules. When they later returned to Poland, local authorities refused to register their marriage, citing the constitution’s definition of marriage as between a man and a woman.
The couple challenged the decision, and after exhausting their appeals in Polish courts, the case went to the Court of Justice of the European Union. The court was asked to clarify whether EU law — including free-movement rights and the EU Charter’s ban on discrimination — requires countries that do not allow same-sex marriage to recognize valid marriages from other member states.
Last November, the EU’s highest court found that Poland’s refusal to recognize JC-T and MT’s marriage violated their rights to freedom of movement and equal treatment under the law. The court said requiring member states to recognize marriages from other EU countries “does not undermine the national identity or pose a threat to the public policy” of Poland.
The decision builds on a principle established in a 2018 ruling known as the Coman case, in which the court found that Romania had to recognize a same-sex marriage to grant residency rights to a foreign spouse. In JC-T and MT’s case, because both partners are EU citizens, the court said that moving within the EU does not erase a couple’s marital status, according to Courthouse News Service.
It was initially unclear how Poland would respond. But on March 20, the Supreme Administrative Court issued a ruling aligning with the EU court’s decision.
While Polish law still defines marriage as between opposite-sex partners, recognizing same-sex marriages performed in other EU countries “does not violate national identity” or interfere with Poland’s authority to set its own family laws.
“EU regulations grant every citizen the right to freedom of movement and prohibit discrimination on the grounds of sex and sexual orientation,” Judge Leszek Kirnaszek wrote.
LGBTQ advocates estimate that 30,000 to 40,000 Polish citizens have entered into same-sex marriages outside the country — making recognition of those unions a significant milestone for the LGBTQ community.
“This is the best path to real change today,” said Hubert Sobecki of Love Doesn’t Exclude, a Polish LGBTQ advocacy group, noting that legislative progress is unlikely in the coming years.
Some uncertainty remains. Because the ruling ties recognition of foreign marriages to EU freedom-of-movement rules, it is unclear whether all same-sex marriages will be recognized or only those involving couples who lived abroad, as in the case of JC-T and MT.
Poland is one of only four EU countries — along with Bulgaria, Hungary, and Slovakia — that offers no legal recognition for same-sex couples. An Ipsos poll conducted last year found that only 31% of Poles support legalizing same-sex marriage, while 62% favor some form of legal recognition for same-sex couples.
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