The Ruling
On 20 March 2026, Poland's Supreme Administrative Court — the Naczelny Sąd Administracyjny, or NSA — issued a historic judgment (case reference II OSK 216/21) ordering the Warsaw registry office to formally transcribe the German marriage certificate of two Polish men into the Polish civil register within 30 days. The court overturned earlier decisions by the Warsaw administrative court and the Masovian Governor, both of which had refused the transcription on the grounds that it would conflict with Polish public order.
The presiding judge, Leszek Kiermaszek, made clear that Poland's constitutional definition of marriage as a union between a man and a woman does not constitute an absolute barrier to recognising a same-sex marriage lawfully concluded in another EU member state.
Who Are Jakub and Mateusz?
At the heart of this case is a real couple. Jakub Cupriak-Trojan and Mateusz Trojan married in Berlin in June 2018. Both are Polish nationals; Jakub also holds German citizenship. When the couple decided to move to Poland, they applied to have their German marriage certificate transcribed into the Polish civil register — the only mechanism under Polish law by which a foreign marriage can be formally recognised in the country.
The registry office refused. The Masovian Governor refused. The Warsaw Administrative Court, in July 2020, sided with the authorities. The couple appealed to the NSA, which in late 2023 took the extraordinary step of referring the matter to the Court of Justice of the European Union in Luxembourg — setting in motion the legal chain of events that ended with this week's ruling.
Why Was the CJEU Involved — and What Did It Decide?
The NSA did not initially rule on the substance of the case itself. Instead, it suspended proceedings and submitted a preliminary reference to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), asking whether EU law — specifically the provisions on freedom of movement and residence for EU citizens — precluded Polish authorities from refusing to recognise and transcribe a same-sex marriage certificate issued in another member state.
On 25 November 2025, the CJEU delivered its answer in Case C-713/23, and it was unambiguous.
The court held that where two EU citizens have lawfully married in one member state, they must be able to continue their family life when they move to or return to another member state — including their country of origin. Refusing to recognise such a marriage restricts the right to free movement guaranteed under Article 21(1) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), and it violates the right to respect for private and family life enshrined in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights.
The CJEU was careful to distinguish between two things: a member state's sovereign right to decide whether to introduce same-sex marriage in its own national law, which remains intact, and its obligation under EU law to recognise a same-sex marriage celebrated in another member state for the specific purpose of enabling freedom of movement. These are separate questions, and only the second falls within the scope of EU law.
The court also noted that, because transcription into the civil register is the only available mechanism for recognition under Polish law, Poland must make that mechanism accessible to same-sex couples — not as a matter of social policy, but as a matter of EU legal obligation.
So Why Was a Polish Ruling Still Needed?
This is a question worth pausing on. If the CJEU had already ruled clearly in November 2025, why did the case need to return to Poland at all?
The answer lies in how EU law actually works. The CJEU does not function as a final court of appeal in the way a national supreme court does. When it receives a preliminary reference, it provides a binding interpretation of EU law — but it does not apply that interpretation to the facts of the specific case. That task falls back to the national court that made the referral. The CJEU tells the national court what EU law means; the national court then decides the case in light of that interpretation.
In practical terms, this meant the NSA had to reconvene after the November 2025 judgment, take account of what the CJEU had said, and apply it to Jakub and Mateusz's situation. That is precisely what it did on 20 March 2026.
There was also a domestic constitutional dimension that the NSA needed to address directly. Polish authorities had consistently relied on Article 18 of the Polish Constitution — which places marriage between a man and a woman under state protection — as justification for refusal. The NSA tackled this head-on, ruling that Article 18 must be read in conjunction with other constitutional values, including the inherent dignity of every person (Article 30), equality and the prohibition of discrimination (Article 32), and the right to private and family life. Read in this broader context, Article 18 does not prohibit the recognition of a same-sex marriage concluded lawfully abroad.
The court also dismissed a practical objection that had been used to delay action: the Polish civil register IT system does not accommodate two people of the same sex, meaning one of the two men would have to be entered in the field marked "wife". The NSA ruled that this technical limitation is not a valid legal reason for non-compliance. The registry office must carry out the transcription regardless, noting any resulting discrepancies in the remarks section of the document.
What Does This Mean for LGBTQ+ People in Poland?
The implications are significant, though it is important to understand both what has changed and what has not.
What has changed
Polish registry offices can no longer automatically refuse to transcribe foreign same-sex marriage certificates. They are now required to consider EU law and the CJEU's binding judgment. Each registry office has 30 days to comply once it receives the administrative file back from the court. The NSA also ordered the Masovian Governor to pay approximately 3,280 euros in legal costs to the couple — a signal that procedural obstruction carries financial consequences.
The ruling creates a precedent. Whilst it is strictly binding only in Jakub and Mateusz's case, the legal reasoning applies equally to other same-sex couples who married in an EU member state and wish to have that marriage recognised in Poland. Advocacy organisations estimate that up to 40,000 Polish citizens have contracted same-sex marriages abroad.
A separate ruling by the Provincial Administrative Court in Olsztyn, issued just two weeks before the NSA judgment, also ordered the local registry office to transcribe a same-sex marriage, suggesting that national courts are moving in a consistent direction.
What has not changed
Poland has not introduced same-sex marriage into its national law. The NSA was explicit on this point: recognition of a foreign same-sex marriage for EU freedom of movement purposes is a different matter from changing the domestic legal definition of marriage. Polish law continues to define marriage as a union between a woman and a man.
Derived rights — such as joint adoption, shared tax status, or automatic inheritance rights — are not automatically conferred by transcription alone. Some of these may require further legal proceedings or legislative action.
What comes next
The Ministry of Digitalisation has been working on a regulation to modify civil register document templates, replacing gendered fields such as "husband" and "wife" with neutral terms such as "First Spouse" and "Second Spouse". This would resolve the IT impasse that registry offices have cited as a practical obstacle.
Opposing political forces, including the Law and Justice party, have announced they will file a motion with the Constitutional Tribunal to challenge the ruling. Whether that challenge gains traction remains to be seen.
A Note on the Broader European Picture
Poland is not alone in the position it has found itself in. Bulgaria, Romania, and Slovakia similarly do not provide legal recognition for same-sex partnerships of any kind. The CJEU's November 2025 ruling in C-713/23 applies to all EU member states, meaning the legal obligation to recognise foreign same-sex marriages for freedom of movement purposes is not confined to Poland. Couples in those countries may now pursue similar claims before their own national courts.
For those travelling to or living in Poland, the practical takeaway is that the legal landscape is shifting — slowly, and not without political resistance, but in a direction that increases the security and recognition of LGBTQ+ families within the country.