The Civil Registry Office in Wrocław has carried out the first transcription of a foreign same-sex marriage certificate. As the city hall reported, the decision is a consequence of a ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union as well as judgments by Polish administrative courts. Earlier, a similar transcription was conducted in Warsaw. The changes also require new civil status forms and further legislative action.
The city authorities announced that on Friday, May 15, the first transcription of a foreign same-sex marriage certificate was completed at the Wrocław Civil Registry Office.
“A long-awaited change has become a reality! After many years, and recently also months of intense struggle, same-sex marriages concluded abroad are now marriages under Polish law as well. We owe this above all to the brave couples who took their cases to court, their lawyers, and the organizations and individuals who have been working for many years to advance LGBTQ+ rights and human rights”, said Alina Szeptycka, Plenipotentiary of the Mayor of Wrocław for Equal Treatment.
The ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Union of November 25, 2025 states that refusing to recognize a marriage between two European Union citizens of the same sex, legally concluded in another Member State, constitutes a violation of EU law.
On December 10, 2025, Szeptycka appealed to the Minister of the Interior and Administration to immediately issue the appropriate regulation and prepare the necessary systemic changes. A similar appeal was also issued on December 5 by the Wrocław Council for Equal Treatment.
On Thursday morning, the first such transcription in Poland was carried out at the Civil Registry Office in Warsaw. The Supreme Administrative Court ruled in March this year in a case concerning the transcription into the Polish civil registry of a marriage between two Polish citizens legally concluded in 2018 in Berlin. The court ordered the Civil Registry Office to make the entry.
Earlier, in 2023, the Supreme Administrative Court referred a preliminary question to the Court of Justice of the European Union. Two years later – in November 2025 – the Court ruled that a Member State is obliged to recognize a same-sex marriage legally concluded in another EU country, even if its national law does not recognize such unions.
Since March, the Supreme Administrative Court has ordered the transcription of marriage certificates for a total of seven same-sex couples. Full implementation of the CJEU guidelines and the introduction of a transcription procedure require legislative changes.
Work on a regulation concerning templates of civil status records, which will enable the transcription of same-sex marriages concluded abroad, began in November 2025 following the ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Union, which obliged Poland to recognize marriages entered into by same-sex couples in other EU countries.
The regulation has already been signed by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Digital Affairs Krzysztof Gawkowski, and its countersignature in the coming days was announced on Thursday by the Minister of the Interior and Administration Marcin Kierwiński. Government Plenipotentiary for Equality Katarzyna Kotula explained that the marriage certificate form will be changed – ultimately, it is to have three versions depending on who entered into the marriage: a woman and a man, a woman and a woman, or a man and a man.