WARSAW: A top European court Tuesday ruled that an EU nation had to recognise a gay marriage recorded in another member state, following a complaint by two Poles married in Germany. The couple, one of whom also has German nationality, were living there and married in Berlin in 2018. But when they tried to move to Poland and requested their marriage certificate be registered there, they were “refused on the ground that Polish law does not allow marriage between persons of the same sex”, the Court of Justice of the European Union said in a statement.“The spouses in question, as European Union citizens, enjoy the freedom to move and reside within the territory of the Member States and the right to lead a normal family life when exercising that freedom and upon returning to their Member State of origin,” the court said. It said “such a refusal is contrary to EU law” and “infringes not only the freedom to move and reside, but also the fundamental right to respect for private and family life”.When contacted, the Polish NGO Campaign Against Homophobia welcomed what it termed a “very positive” decision. Polish associations estimate that between 30,000 and 40,000 Polish citizens have contracted marriages abroad. They now anticipate a surge of couples bringing their cases to city halls in Poland following the ECJ ruling.Catholic Poland has yet to undertake the social and secular reforms implemented since the early 2000s in many other European countries. .Poland’s education minister, Barbara Nowacka, on Tuesday welcomed the court’s decision as “an important victory for the respect of rights and dignity”.
