The European Court of Justice has ruled that EU countries must recognise same-sex marriages legally performed in another member state — a decision with direct implications for a Polish couple who married in Germany.
The case concerned two Polish citizens married in Berlin in 2018.
When they returned to Poland, local authorities refused to register their marriage because national law does not allow marriages between people of the same sex.
The court found that, while each member state sets its own rules on who may marry, those rules cannot be applied in ways that conflict with EU rights.
As citizens of the Union, the couple are entitled to freedom of movement and the protection of family life, and they must be able to rely on their marital status when returning to their home country.
Importantly, the ECJ did not order Poland to open its domestic marriage laws to same-sex couples.
Instead, it said that authorities must recognise a valid foreign same-sex marriage for the purposes of EU law and the rights that flow from being married.
The decision comes amid a patchwork of approaches across the bloc.
The Netherlands pioneered legal recognition of same-sex unions in 2001 and many other states followed, but several countries, including Poland, Hungary and Slovakia, still refuse to allow such marriages.
Slovakia recently amended its constitution to restrict adoption to opposite-sex couples.
In Poland, a pro-European coalition government has pushed for greater rights for same-sex partners, though changes could face resistance and a possible veto from conservative President Karol Nawrocki.
The ruling was welcomed by government ally Katarzyna Kotula, who described it as progress toward equality.
MEP Krzysztof Śmiszek also hailed the judgment on social media, saying it marked an important moment.
Legal experts say the ECJ decision sets a clear precedent: EU member states must respect marital status conferred elsewhere in the Union when EU rights are at stake, a ruling likely to affect other couples and national administrations across Europe.
