“I will of course sign this regulation”, declared Marcin Kierwiński, head of the Ministry of the Interior and Administration. The regulation concerns changes to the template of marriage certificates in cases of same-sex marriages concluded abroad.
On Tuesday, at the start of a government meeting, the head of the cabinet – Donald Tusk – spoke about so-called same-sex marriages and stated that work on their legalization should accelerate. He referred to a ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Union, which according to many lawyers and experts – does not have binding force with regard to Polish law.
“The time has come for decisions on a matter that has been at the center of public attention for many days. I am referring to the verdict of the Court of Justice of the European Union, as well as the ruling of the Supreme Administrative Court in Poland. These are decisions of the Court and the Court regarding so-called transcription. This concerns the situation of same-sex marriages when they want to live in Poland, and they concluded such a union outside the country, come from another country or lived in another country – their legal situation when they appear in Poland”, said Tusk.
As he indicated – “I instruct Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Gawkowski and Minister Kierwiński to urgently, as soon as possible, determine the content of the regulation, and I call on parliamentarians to work as quickly as possible wherever legislation will be necessary to define the consequences of this decision”.
Kierwiński, speaking about same-sex marriages, refers to… “Polish law”
On Wednesday, a day after Tusk’s announcement, the Minister of Digital Affairs Krzysztof Gawkowski announced that he had signed a draft regulation changing the templates of marriage certificates for same-sex couples. “Now it is time for the Minister of the Interior and Administration”, he added.
Kierwiński was asked about the matter on Thursday on Polsat News. As he stated – his signature on the regulation “is a matter of the next few days”. He went on to explain that such regulations undergo short inter-ministerial consultations before being signed. However, he assured: “I will of course sign this regulation”.
He assessed that in this matter he had “a very good dialogue with Prime Minister Gawkowski”.
“We had slightly different perspectives – I say perspectives – regarding the legal departments supervised by our ministries, but it was the remarks of the Ministry of the Interior and Administration that introduced, for example, the option that it will be selectable. This concerns the possibility of indicating the spouse’s gender”, he explained.
Asked whether this “creates a gateway for the future so that same-sex unions would have the same rights as marriages in Poland, including adoption of children”, Kierwiński replied that “in this matter we have a ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Union and rulings of Polish courts, and the October 15 coalition will comply with court judgments”.
“Prime Minister Donald Tusk clearly stated that we will carry out transcription because this is what Polish law provides for. However, this is not equivalent to those marriages concluded abroad having all the rights”, he added.
Dispute over same-sex marriages
As a reminder: at the end of November last year, the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled that Member States are obliged to recognize same-sex marriages concluded in other EU countries, even if national law – as in the case of Poland – defines marriage exclusively as a union between a woman and a man.
At the end of March, the Supreme Administrative Court of Poland overturned a ruling of the Warsaw administrative court and an earlier decision refusing to enter into the civil registry a same-sex marriage certificate of Polish citizens concluded abroad. At the same time, it obliged the head of the Warsaw civil registry office to transfer such a record into the Polish register – giving 30 days to do so.
The starting point was the case of two men who married in Berlin and sought transcription of their marriage certificate in a Polish office. In March 2026, the Supreme Administrative Court obliged the civil registry to enter into the Polish register a same-sex marriage concluded abroad. Thus, the court overturned the negative decisions in this case issued by the Civil Registry Office in Słubice and the Lubusz Voivode.
Recently, another court did the same. The Voivodeship Administrative Court in Lublin examined on Tuesday a complaint by two women who had been refused transcription of their marriage certificate – that is, the transfer of the content of a foreign civil status document into the Polish register. The court ordered the head of the Civil Registry Office in Lublin to carry out the transcription into the Polish register of a marriage lawfully concluded by two women in July 2023 in Portugal.