Poland’s top administrative court (NSA) ruled that the country’s public authorities must recognise same-sex marriages performed elsewhere in the European Union by entering them into the country’s civil registry.
The ruling on March 20 follows a 2025 decision by the European Court of Justice that obliged member states to recognise same-sex marriages concluded in other EU countries, even if national law does not allow for such unions.
That ruling was controversial because EU treaties do not give the community the power to determine family law in member states. The ruling, though, is based on an interpretation of the Lisbon Treaty’s Article 2, which makes the observance of human rights a key value of the EU and the court has interpreted the right to marry a person of the same sex as such a right.
The court ordered officials to register the marriage of two Polish men who wed in Berlin in 2018. The couple had previously been denied legal recognition in Poland, where same-sex marriage is not permitted under domestic law.
The two men, one of them Polish, the other a dual Polish-German national, then sought to have their union recorded in Poland’s civil registry.
They were refused, first by the registry office and then by courts, on the basis that article 18 of Poland’s Constitution states that marriage, “being a union of a man and a woman, shall be placed under the protection and care of the Republic of Poland”.
The NSA overturned earlier decisions by a Warsaw administrative court and civil registry officials and ordered that the marriage be entered into the national register within 30 days.
In its justification of the ruling the court said Poland’s Constitution, which defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman, does not prevent the recognition of same-sex marriages performed abroad,
“The provision cannot be interpreted as an absolute obstacle to recognising a same-sex marriage concluded in another EU member state,” said Justice Leszek Kiermaszek. Interpreting the constitution otherwise could conflict with principles prohibiting discrimination, including on the basis of sexual orientation, he added.
The move is regarded by its critics as the court acting outside of its powers as in Poland only the constitutional court has been given the power to rule on the constitutionality of laws.
Poland has three top courts: The constitutional court, which rules on constitutional matters; the top administrative court (NSA), which rules on matters covered by administrative law; and the Supreme Court (SN), which rules on criminal, civil and labour law issues.
The NSA ruling is seen as a boost for LGBTQ rights, which have been a contentious political issue in a country where same-sex couples do not have the right to marry or enter into civil unions.
The ruling was also welcomed by the centre-left government led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk whose equality minister Katarzyna Kotula from the Left Party said that it reinforces the fact, in her opinion, that “we do not need legislative changes for the registry office to be able to recognise foreign marriage certificates”.
The Left Party’s deputy PM and minister for digital affairs Krzysztof Gawkowski said the ruling was a “landmark decision that meant “rainbow families are equal before the law”.
The government has been working on implementation of the ECJ ruling. In January, the digital affairs ministry revealed proposed changes to civil-registry documents, which would use “first spouse” and “second spouse” instead of the current “man” and “woman”.
There remain, though, differences between more liberal and conservative elements of the ruling coalition from the centre-right Polish People’s Party (PSL) over precisely how the ruling should be implemented, and whether that can be achieved without introducing new legislation.
But the opposition-aligned President Karol Nawrocki has already announced he would veto any legislation that disregards the constitutional position that marriage is defined as a union of man and woman.
The main opposition party, the Conservatives (PiS) criticised the court’s ruling and said it would challenge it in Poland’s constitutional court, a court the Tusk government does not recognise because of a dispute over its membership.
“This ruling is a very real threat. It is an attack on the family,” said the head of PiS’ parliamentary caucus, Mariusz Błaszczak.
“Under Tusk’s government, same sex marriage is being introduced but this is just the first step, because the next one will be the adoption of children.”
