The highest court of EU stated that same sex marriages must be respected and are valid across the bloc and called out Poland for not recognising such marriages.
The EU’s highest court ruled on Tuesday that same sex marriages must be respected throughout the bloc and rebuked Poland for refusing to recognise a marriage between two of its citizens that took place in Germany.
The court said Poland had been wrong in not recognising the marriage of the couple when they moved back to Poland, on the grounds that Polish law does not allow marriage between people of the same sex.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD
“It infringes not only the freedom to move and reside, but also the fundamental right to respect for private and family life,” the court said.
Freedom to have ’normal family life’
In predominantly Catholic Poland, the struggle for LGBT equality for years was branded by those in power as a dangerous foreign ideology. However, the current government has been working on a bill to regulate civil partnerhips, including same-sex unions.
The EU Court of Justice made the binding ruling at the request of a Polish court handling the case of the men who had contested the refusal to transcribe their German marriage certificate in the Polish registry.
The couple, who wed in Berlin in 2018, have been identified only by their initials in the case. A lawyer for the couple declined to comment on the ruling.
EU citizens have the freedom to move to other member states and to have “a