Jakub Cupriak-Trojan and Mateusz Trojan v Wojewoda Mazowiecki (2025) is a landmark historic decision of the European Court of Justice, which ruled that a same-sex marriage performed in one member state of the European Union must be recognized in all member states of the European Union.
The 13âÂÂ0 unanimous ruling of the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Justice found that both the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union and the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union guarantee the fundamental right of a same-sex couple who had their same-sex marriage performed in one member state of the European Union to have their same-sex marriage recognized in all member states of the European Union.
The ruling expands upon the 2018 ECJ case Coman and Others, which affirmed residency rights in EU countries to the spouse of an EU citizen who is exercising their right to freedom of movement and if the marriage was legally performed in an EU member state.
Article 21 TFEU defines that "every citizen of the Union shall have the right to move and reside freely within the territory of the Member States."
Directive 2004/38/EC (the Citizensâ Rights Directive or Free Movement Directive) defines this right. It grants the same freedom to family members of Union citizens (including spouses), even if they are not nationals of an EU member state. "Family members" (Article 2(2)) include the spouse, the registered partner, a child under 21, or a dependent child or parent (of the Union citizen or partner). There is a second category of "any other family member", which can be included at the discretion of national legislation.
The Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union affirms the freedom of movement and of residence (Article 45) and furthermore guarantees the right to respect for private and family life (Article 7), guarantees the right to marry (Article 9) and prohibits discrimination based on, among other grounds, sex and sexual orientation (Article 21).
Mateusz Trojan, a Polish citizen, had married a Polish-German citizen, Jakub Cupriak-Trojan, in 2018 in Germany, where same-sex marriage has been legal since 2017. The couple wished to relocate to Poland and file their marriage certificate with a local court, but were refused by the Head of the Warsaw Civil Registry Office due to the constitutional ban on same-sex marriage. The couple unsuccessfully challenged the refusal before the governor of Masovian Voivodeship, then in Provincial Administrative Court in Warsaw, arguing for recognition on the grounds of both countries being EU members. After appealing to the Supreme Administrative Court of Poland, the court referred the case to the ECJ to seek clarification on interpretation of Article 20(2)(a) and Article 21(1) TFEU, read in the light of Article 7 and Article 21(1) of the Charter. The judgment is based on the case Coman v General Inspectorate for Immigration of the Ministry of Internal Affairs [Romania], which was decided in 2018. Nevertheless, it also cites cases considered at the ECtHR:
The question referred by the Supreme Administrative Court of Poland to the European Court of Justice on 23 November 2023 was:
A hearing was held on 3 December 2024. The Advocate General Jean Richard de la Tour gave his formal opinion on 3 April 2025. The Court followed the opinion and ruled as follows in Grand Chamber on 25 November 2025:
The ruling requires Poland, Romania, Bulgaria and Slovakia, all of which are EU member states which maintain constitutional bans on same-sex marriage and do not maintain some form of civil partnership registry or same-sex couples, to recognize those same-sex marriages legally conducted in other member states. It does not require any member state to perform said marriages.
On 20 March 2026, the Supreme Administrative Court formally affirmed the ECJ ruling for Poland, ruling that same-sex marriages contracted in other member states must be recognized domestically for administrative and residency purposes. The decision ordered local civil registry offices to transcribe non-Polish EU same-sex marriage certificates into the Polish system. The Law and Justice Party announced an appeal of the verdict to the Constitutional Tribunal.