Polish court rejects European court's ruling in favor of marriage equalityhttps://www.lgbtqnation.com/2026/07/polish-court-rejects-european-courts-ruling-in-favor-of-marriage-equality/ 🔗Alex Bollinger (30 July 2026)
Poland's highest court rejected a ruling from a European court requiring the Catholic-majority nation to recognize same-sex marriages performed abroad.
The ruling from the Constitutional Tribunal comes after the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled last November that Poland, which is a European Union member state, has to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other countries, even if it doesn't perform same-sex marriages itself.
But the Constitutional Tribunal on Tuesday rejected that, DW reports. While a full opinion is not yet available, the court said that the CJEU decision was "inconsistent with Article 92, Paragraph 1, in conjunction with Article 18 of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland."
Article 18 says: "Marriage, being a union of a man and a woman, as well as the family, motherhood and parenthood, shall be placed under the protection and care of the Republic of Poland," and Article 92, Paragraph 1 says that regulations are determined by "the organs specified in the Constitution."
Earlier this year, Poland's Prime Minister, Donald Tusk, promised to pass a law to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other EU countries in response to the CJEU and NSA rulings. Parliament passed a bill to create "cohabitation contracts" for same-sex couples, but President Karol Nawrocki, whose party is more conservative than Tusk's, vetoed it last week, saying that the cohabitation contracts were too similar to marriage.
