Poland's Constitutional Tribunal on Tuesday overturned a law that would have recognized same-sex marriages legally performed in other European Union member states, defying a ruling from the EU's top court and potentially setting up a clash between the two judicial bodies.

The Polish government had been moving to comply with a November 2025 ruling from the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), which required Poland to register same-sex marriages contracted elsewhere in the bloc, even though Poland itself does not permit such unions. The Constitutional Tribunal unanimously rejected this move.

The court stated that the plan to prepare and issue certified copies of unions contracted abroad that are not between a man and a woman was inconsistent with Article 92(1) in conjunction with Article 18 of the Polish Constitution. Article 18 defines marriage as a union of a man and a woman.

The CJEU ruling did not demand that Poland legalize same-sex marriage, but only that it copy marital status into the civil register for couples who married elsewhere in the EU and then moved to Poland, to ensure they could access benefits tied to marital status. The case was brought by two men, a Polish national and a German-Polish dual national, who married in Germany in 2018.

Poland's Supreme Administrative Court had ruled in March that the step did not violate national identity. The government implemented the legislation in May, but the right-wing opposition PiS party challenged it at the Constitutional Tribunal, successfully. Poland, where about 70% of the population identifies as Roman Catholic, is one of four EU members that do not permit same-sex marriage or civil unions.

Source: www.dw.com