A court in Lublin, Poland, has ordered the civil registry office to transcribe a marriage certificate for a same-sex couple legally wed in Portugal in July 2023.
Court Ruling in Lublin
The Administrative Court in Lublin on Tuesday considered the complaint of two women who were denied the transcription of their marriage certificate – the transfer of content from a foreign civil status document to the Polish register.
The court obligated the head of the Lublin Civil Registry Office to transfer the record to the civil status register through the transcription of the marriage certificate legally concluded by two women in July 2023 in Portugal. A deadline of 30 days from the return of administrative files was set, following the finalization of the judgment.
Initial Denial and Appeal
The head of the Lublin Civil Registry Office refused to enter the marriage certificate into the domestic civil registers in October 2023. The women appealed this decision to the Lublin Voivode, who upheld it on December 6, 2023. Subsequently, the women filed a complaint with the administrative court.
Landmark CJEU Ruling
The Lublin court based its decision on rulings from the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) and the Supreme Administrative Court (NSA). Last autumn, the CJEU responded to a preliminary question from the NSA regarding the case of a same-sex couple who married in Germany.
Their marriage certificate was initially refused transcription by the Warsaw Civil Registry Office and then by the Masovian Voivode. The CJEU ruled that a member state is obligated to recognize a marriage of a same-sex couple legally concluded in another EU country, even if that state’s law does not recognize such unions. The NSA then obligated the head of the Warsaw civil registry office to transcribe the German marriage certificate into the civil register.