Buckle up, patriots—the European Union’s top court just dropped a bombshell on Poland, demanding recognition of same-sex unions despite the nation’s own laws.
According to the Daily Caller, on Nov. 25, 2025, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled that Poland must acknowledge same-sex marriages legally performed in other EU nations, setting off a firestorm of debate over national sovereignty versus Brussels’ overreach.
This clash began back in 2018 when two Polish men, married under German law, sought to have their union recorded in Poland’s civil registry.
Polish officials rejected the request, citing the nation’s longstanding legal framework that upholds marriage as a bond between a man and a woman. The couple took their fight to the courts, culminating in the recent CJEU decision that’s got conservatives across Europe raising their eyebrows.
The EU court declared that denying recognition of these unions, when legally established elsewhere in the bloc, violates fundamental rights like freedom of movement and family life.
According to the ruling, EU member states must honor marital statuses granted in other countries when it comes to rights under EU law.
Yet, in a nod to national autonomy, the court clarified that Poland isn’t forced to legalize same-sex marriage within its own borders.
Still, if there’s a standard process for registering foreign marriages, like entering them into a civil database, it must be applied without discrimination to same-sex couples.
Here’s the rub: Poland’s Constitution explicitly defines marriage as between a man and a woman, placing family and parenthood under state protection.
“They all seek to steal the powers of nation-states, to strip the citizens of Poland and other countries of the right to decide their own fates,” said Tobiasz Bocheński, a European Parliament member from Poland’s Law and Justice party.
His words ring true for many who see this as Brussels overstepping, using progressive policies to chip away at a nation’s right to self-govern—hardly the democratic spirit the EU claims to champion.
“Encroaches on the competencies of states,” echoed Michał Kowalski, a Polish Parliament member from the same conservative faction.
Kowalski’s frustration cuts to the core for those who believe the EU is meddling in cultural matters best left to individual nations, not a centralized bureaucracy with a one-size-fits-all agenda.
This ruling is just the latest in a string of tensions between EU institutions and Poland, as Brussels pushes for uniform social policies while more traditional nations stand firm on their values and constitutional principles.