The Social Insurance Institution (ZUS) announced that same-sex unions, whose documents confirming marriage abroad are entered into the civil registry, will be treated on equal terms with marriages concluded in Poland. This is the result of a motion by New Left (Lewica) politician Sebastian Gajewski, Deputy Minister of Family, Labour and Social Policy.
It is worth recalling that recently the Supreme Administrative Court (NSA) obliged the civil registry office to enter a same-sex marriage conducted abroad into the Polish register. The case concerns two Polish men who formally married in Berlin.
“On Equal Terms”
ZUS is required to recognize copies of marriage certificates issued by Polish civil registry offices. A final judgment of the NSA on March 20, 2026 (case file II OSK 216/21) obliged the Head of the Civil Registry Office of Warsaw to transfer, by transcription, the marriage certificate concluded in Berlin on June 6, 2019, by J. C. and M. T. into the civil registry within 30 days of the return of administrative files. From the moment ZUS receives the documents from the civil registry, Mr. J. C. and Mr. M. T. will be treated in all proceedings before the Institution on equal terms with other marriages concluded in Poland and confirmed by the relevant Civil Registry Office, the ZUS statement reads.
Left-wing circles hailed it as a success, emphasizing that the announcement opens access to ZUS benefits for those who marry abroad. This includes, among others, survivor’s pensions or widow’s/widower’s benefits.
Law and Justice (PiS) politicians announced that they would submit a motion regarding the recognition of same-sex marriages to the Constitutional Tribunal. They pointed out that Article 18 of the Polish Constitution clearly defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman.