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Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal (TK) has ruled that a new regulation allowing the registration of foreign same-sex marriage certificates in Poland was partly unconstitutional, saying it went beyond technical administrative changes and conflicted with the constitution’s definition of marriage. The regulation, introduced by the digital affairs ministry after rulings by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) and Poland’s Supreme Administrative Court (NSA), was due to take effect on 23 August. The government, which considers the court to be improperly constituted, says it will not implement the ruling.
The government has issued a regulation allowing foreign same-sex marriages to be entered in the civil registry The decision comes in response to an EU court order and marks a major change in a country that does not allow same-sex unions under domestic law https://t.co/2an5mGtnHl — Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) May 22, 2026 Polish law does not allow same-sex couples to marry or enter into civil unions, and a bill that would have granted such limited rights to unmarried couples was recently vetoed by the opposition-backed president. Until this year, same-sex couples who married abroad were also unable to register their marriage certificates in Poland. After the CJEU ruled that Poland must recognise such marriages, the digital affairs ministry changed civil status forms.
Instead of separate fields for “man” and “woman”, the new templates use “man/woman”, allowing registry offices to record both opposite-sex and same-sex marriages. Lawmakers from the national-conservative opposition Law and Justice (PiS) party, however, challenged the regulation, arguing that the digital affairs minister had exceeded his powers because the changes were not merely technical but affected the legal definition of marriage. The tribunal said the new forms allowed relationships that do not match the constitution’s definition of marriage as…
Poland's constitutional court has overturned plans to recognize same-sex marriages that took place in other EU member states. This defies an order from the EU's top court and could set up a clash on the matter.
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