A landmark case that could lead to the EU-wide imposition of same-sex marriage will be decided by the EU’s Court of Justice in the coming days. The case regards a same-sex couple who asked the Romanian Government to recognise their foreign marriage as valid. When Romania, in line with its national law, refused to consider the pair to be a married couple, they sued the government. In 2016, the Romanian Constitutional Court referred questions of interpretation to the European Court of Justice.

Legal experts now fear that a decision in favour of the couple would not only impose same-sex marriage on all EU States, but would also undermine the principle of subsidiarity. “Many European countries recognize and protect marriage as a union between a man and a woman in their laws and constitutions, as is their right. A Member State should remain free to affirm in their laws that a mother and father are both essential in a child’s life,” said Sophia Kuby, Director of EU Advocacy for ADF International, based in Brussels. “The core notions of family law – ‘spouses,’ ‘family member,’ and ‘marriage’ – fall within the competence of EU Member States. . . . If this Court puts forward a definition of ‘spouses’ as including same-sex partners, national competence on the issue would be eradicated,” explained Adina Portaru, Legal Counsel for ADF International and leading lawyer on the third party intervention.