Same-sex marriage must be respected throughout EU, top court tells Poland

The ruling covers the case of a Polish couple who married in Berlin but Polish authorities refused to recognise their marriage.

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The European Court of Justice (ECJ) said that EU member states were obliged to recognise a same-sex marriage between two EU citizens that had been "lawfully concluded in another member state".

The ruling covers the case of a Polish couple who married in Berlin in 2018. When they decided to move to Poland, authorities refused to accept their marriage certificate as Polish law does not recognise same-sex marriage.

The ECJ made clear that Polish domestic law would not have to be changed to recognise marriages between people of the same sex.

Since the Netherlands recognised same-sex unions in 2001, a number of other EU countries have followed suit, but others, such as Poland, Hungary and Slovakia, have not.