EU countries that have not legalised gay marriage must respect the residency rights of same-sex spouses who want to live together in their territory, the European court of Justice has ruled, in a move hailed as a victory for human dignity.
The ECJ said member states must recognise the rights of all married couples to free movement, no matter their gender or sexual orientation.
Euronews reports that in the landmark ruling Romania must give residency to US citizen Claibourn Robert Hamilton on the grounds that he was the spouse of Romanian citizen Adrian Coman.
The decision came after the couple, who married in Belgium in 2010, requested a residency for Hamilton to live and work permanently in Romania in December 2012, but was turned down because Romania does not recognise same-sex marriage.
The couple challenged the country’s decision in 2013 based on the EU’s freedom of movement directive.
The ECJ found that the term “spouse” in this directive includes same-sex partners, even if the country where residency is being requested does not recognise gay marriage.
“Although the Member States have the freedom whether or not to authorise marriage between persons of the same sex, they may not obstruct the freedom of residence of an EU citizen by refusing to grant his same-sex spouse, a national of a country that is not an EU Member State, a derived right of residence in their territory,” the court said.
Six European Union countries — all of them former Eastern Bloc nations that joined the union in the 21st century — have yet to legalise same-sex marriages or civil unions. In a statement issued along with its verdict, the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg said they remained free not to do so.
Dispatch based on reports on The Guardian, New York Times and Euronews
