EU Court of Justice rules same-sex couple have same residency rights

The same-sex spouse of an EU citizen is entitled to reside with his or her partner regardless of whether or not same-sex marriage is legalized in the country, the European Court of Justice said in a ruling Tuesday.

“All 28 member states of the European Union will in future have to recognize same-sex marriage couples right of residence, even if they don’t have either civil partnerships or marriage for all under their national law.”

The EU’s law on freedom of movement — which allows for a spouse to join his or her partner residing in an EU country — applies to same-sex couples, the court ruled, specifying that the term “spouse” does not exclusively refer to a member of a heterosexual couple.

According to POLITICO.eu, the ruling relates to a 2012 case in which Romanian authorities refused to grant residency rights to a male U.S. national, Robert Hamilton, who was married to a Romanian national, Relu Coman.

The Romanian-American couple were married in Brussels in 2010, where same-sex marriage is legal. In December 2012, Coman contacted the Romanian authorities to request information on the procedure and conditions under which his husband “could obtain the right to reside lawfully in Romania for more than three months.” Romanian authorities denied the couple’s request on the grounds that Romania does not recognize gay marriage and as such Hamilton “could not be classified in Romania as a ‘spouse’ of an EU citizen.”

Member states maintain the freedom to ban or authorize same-sex marriage, but “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.

That obligation does not require the country “to provide, in its national aw, for the institution of homosexual marriage,” according to the court.

“This is fantastic news and a landmark opinion for rainbow families,” Sophie in’t Veld, the vice president of the European Parliament’s LGBTI intergroup, said in a statement. “Freedom of movement is a right of all EU citizens, it cannot be restricted because of whom they love.”