Polish Court Orders Recognition of Same-Sex Marriage

The news in Polish

1. naczelny
   najwyższy rangą, stojący na czele jakiejś instytucji lub urzędu ↩︎
2. administracyjny
   związany z administracją, z urzędami i ich działaniem ↩︎
3. zarejestrować
   wpisać coś oficjalnie do odpowiedniego rejestru lub spisu ↩︎
4. swobodny
   nieograniczony, wolny od przeszkód i zakazów ↩︎
5. przemieszczanie  (n.)
   zmiana miejsca pobytu, przesuwanie się z jednego miejsca w inne ↩︎
6. przeciwny
   mający inne zdanie, niezgadzający się z czymś ↩︎

Translation

Text comprehension

Question 1: Where did the two Polish men get married before asking Warsaw to register their marriage?

Question 2: What European rule did the court use to support its decision?

Vocabulary

Polish	English
naczelny	supreme
administracyjny	administrative
zarejestrować	to register
swobodny	free
przemieszczanie  (n.)	movement
przeciwny	opposed

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The Polish Supreme Administrative Court (Naczelny Sąd Administracyjny, NSA) has ordered the authorities in Warsaw to register a same-sex marriage concluded abroad. The ruling is being described in Poland as a landmark decision, because it concerns the legal status in Poland of a marriage between two Polish men, legally married in Berlin in 2018.

The case involves Jakub Cupriak‑Trojan and Mateusz Trojan, who married in Germany and later moved back to Poland. When they asked the civil registry office (Urząd Stanu Cywilnego, USC) in Warsaw to transcribe their German marriage certificate into the Polish civil register, officials refused. The USC argued that Polish law does not allow marriage between two people of the same sex, so recognising such a marriage in the Polish system would, in its view, contradict the country’s legal order.

After the refusal was upheld by the Mazovian Voivode (the regional representative of the central government), the couple challenged the decision in the administrative courts. A lower court in Warsaw initially sided with the authorities. The NSA, as the highest administrative court, then sent a preliminary question to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU/TSUE), asking whether Poland’s rules, which prevented recognition and transcription of a same-sex marriage performed in another EU member state, were compatible with EU law.

In November 2025, the CJEU replied that EU member states are obliged to recognise same-sex marriages for the purposes of freedom of movement and residencefamily life without legal uncertainty. The court stressed the EU principles of non‑discrimination on grounds of sex and sexual orientation.

On this basis, the NSA returned to the case and on Friday issued its ruling. It overturned both the earlier judgment of the Warsaw administrative court and the USC’s decision. The Supreme Administrative Court ordered the head of the Warsaw civil registry office to transcribe the German marriage certificate into the Polish civil register within 30 days. In the reasoning read out by judge Leszek Kirnaszek, the court stated that EU law grants every EU citizen the right to free movement and to avoid discrimination, and that Polish citizens who have formed a family abroad may expect legal certainty regarding their civil status when they live in Poland.

The judge also argued that the relevant provision of the Polish Constitution – which mentions the protection of marriage as a union of a woman and a man – does not serve as an absolute barrier to recognising a same-sex marriage concluded in another EU country. According to the NSA, the constitution grants particular protection to heterosexual marriage but does not explicitly prohibit legal protection of same-sex relationships, nor does it expressly ban transcription of foreign same-sex marriages. Lawyers for the couple noted in court that there is no specific Polish law that directly forbids such transcription.

The decision triggered a strong political reaction. Politicians from the conservative opposition party Law and Justice (Prawo i Sprawiedliwość, PiS) condemned the ruling. Party parliamentary leader Mariusz Błaszczak announced that PiS will submit a request to the Constitutional Tribunal to examine the legal provisions interpreted by the NSA. He argued that Article 18 of the constitution clearly defines marriage as a union of a woman and a man and that, in his opinion, the court’s interpretation is unconstitutional. He described the ruling as an example of judicial activism influenced by European courts.

PiS MP Marcin Warchoł, who helped prepare the Constitutional Tribunal motion, said that the NSA had given the legal norms an “unconstitutional” meaning that, in his view, does not fit Polish legal traditions. Another PiS politician, Michał Wójcik, wrote that the ruling represented an unacceptable violation of the constitution and warned that it could open the way for adoption of children by same-sex couples, something he opposes. From the right‑wing Confederation (Konfederacja) party, Łukasz Rzepecki used strong language against what he called a “rainbow lobby” and criticised both the NSA and the CJEU.

By contrast, representatives of the Left (Lewica) and members of the current government welcomed the decision. Government equality envoy and Left MP Katarzyna Kotula called it a milestone, emphasising that a Polish court had confirmed the obligation to recognise a same-sex marriage concluded abroad on the basis of freedom of movement. Left politicians, including Deputy Prime Minister and digital affairs minister Krzysztof Gawkowski, social policy minister Agnieszka Dziemianowicz‑Bąk and MEP Robert Biedroń, described the ruling as an important step towards equal treatment of “rainbow families” and repeated their political goal of introducing civil partnerships and full marriage equality in Polish law.

From within the justice ministry, Deputy Minister Dariusz Mazur said that the NSA judgment was, in his view, a straightforward consequence of EU rules on freedom of movement and residence, which allow EU citizens to move and live across member states while maintaining their family status. He argued that Article 18 of the Polish Constitution does not ban legal protection of same-sex unions, but only grants special protection to heterosexual marriage. At the same time, he noted that there are legal debates about the participation of a controversially appointed judge in the case, but underlined that the duty to respect CJEU rulings remains.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk, commenting earlier on the 2025 CJEU decision, had stated that the European Union cannot directly force Poland to introduce same-sex marriage into its domestic law. However, he also said that Poland must respect European court judgments and that the government is working on its own legal solutions to regulate the status of such couples, with the declared aim of treating them with respect while safeguarding Poland’s position in the EU.

The NSA’s ruling does not introduce same-sex marriage as a legal institution in Poland. Polish family law still defines marriage as a union of a woman and a man, and there is currently no national law recognising same-sex marriages or civil partnerships performed in Poland. The judgment applies specifically to the recognition and transcription of a marriage concluded in another EU country, in the context of EU citizens’ rights to move and reside freely with their families.

For many observers, the case of Jakub Cupriak‑Trojan and Mateusz Trojan may function as a precedent for other same-sex couples who married abroad and now live in Poland. The decision suggests that such couples can request their foreign marriage certificates to be entered into the Polish civil register, although the final scope of this practice may still depend on future court decisions and possible interventions from the Constitutional Tribunal. The public and political debate that has followed shows that tension remains between EU law obligations and domestic constitutional interpretation, and that the question of the legal status of same-sex couples in Poland is likely to stay on the national agenda.

Info: ‘Polish Learner News’ is a service from ‘Let’s Learn Polish’, a language school offering online Polish language classes for learners at different levels. We provide structured courses to help students develop their Polish skills in a systematic way.