Same-sex marriages must be recognized throughout the European Union. The decision announced by the Court of Justice of the EU

The Court of Justice of the European Union, the bloc's highest court, ruled on Tuesday that same-sex marriages must be recognized throughout the bloc and criticized Poland for refusing to recognize a marriage between two Polish citizens concluded in Germany, reports Reuters. However, the decision does not oblige member states to change their national laws to allow such marriages.

The court said Warsaw had acted wrongly by not recognizing the couple's marriage when they returned to Poland, on the grounds that Polish law does not allow same-sex marriage.

“This violates not only freedom of movement and residence, but also the fundamental right to respect for private and family life,” the EU Court of Justice said.

In Poland, a country with a strong Catholic tradition, the fight for LGBT equality before the law has for years been presented by those in power as a dangerous foreign ideology. However, the current government is working on a bill to regulate civil partnerships, including same-sex unions.

How same-sex marriages ended up on the table of the EU Court of Justice

The European court issued the binding ruling at the request of a Polish court dealing with the case of the two men who had challenged the authorities' refusal to transcribe their German marriage certificate into the Polish registry.

The couple, who married in Berlin in 2018, were identified in the file only by their initials. A lawyer for the couple declined to comment on the ruling.

EU citizens are free to move to other member states and have a “normal family life” there and upon returning to their country of origin, the Court of Justice ruled.

“When they create a family life in a host Member State, in particular through marriage, they must be certain that they can continue that family life on their return to their home Member State,” the court said.

The decision does not mean that EU countries must legalize same-sex marriage

The judges made it clear that this obligation does not require member states to allow same-sex marriage in their national laws.

But they are not allowed to discriminate against same-sex couples in the way they recognize marriages concluded abroad, the court pointed out.

Work by Prime Minister Donald Tusk's pro-European coalition government to pass the same-sex unions bill has been delayed by resistance from a conservative party in the governing coalition.

Karol Nawrocki, Poland's nationalist president, said in turn that he would veto “any bill that would undermine the constitutionally protected status of marriage.”