A senior EU official has called for same-sex marriage to be legalised across Europe under EU freedom of movement rules, the Irish Independent reports.
Frans Timmermans, the European Commission’s vice president, gave his backing to campaigners who argue that the marriage of a same-sex couple in one EU state should be recognised in all of them, and called for the Commission to lobby for the introduction of same-sex marriage in all 28 member countries.
He said it was a “disgrace” that some European countries do not recognise same-sex partnerships formed elsewhere in the union.
“I believe the Commission should go forward, and try to get all Member States in the EU to unreservedly accept same-sex marriage as other marriages,” the Dutch diplomat said last week.
“Even if they don’t have same-sex marriage yet in their own country, to at least to have the decency to respect the decision of other countries to have same-sex marriage. The fact that when people move to another country they run into all sorts of idiotic problems that married couples who aren’t from the same sex never run into, I think that is a disgrace.”
Any attempt to legalise same-sex marriage across the EU would run into significant obstacles from the fact that several member states including Poland, Hungary and Bulgaria specifically define marriage as being between a man and a woman in their constitutions.
Same-sex marriage is currently recognised in 9 member states, including Ireland.