Slovakia Sued Over Refusal to Register Same-Sex Marriages After EU Ruling
Two same-sex couples are taking Slovakia to court after officials refused to register marriages they entered legally in Austria. The Guardian
The first case was brought by Ivan Novotný, 31, and Metod Špaček, 51, who married in Austria in 2020. Both are lawyers and former diplomats. Špaček served as chief of staff to former Slovak president Zuzana Čaputová.
Slovakia allows neither same-sex marriage nor any form of civil partnership, a legally recognised relationship that gives couples some rights without full marriage. The Interior Ministry declined to enter the couple's 2020 marriage in the registry. Interior Minister Matúš Šutaj Eštok signed the refusal letter. It cited Slovakia's constitutional definition of marriage as a "bond between a man and a woman".
A second case is moving in parallel. Marián Žáry Kukelka, 44, a radio presenter for Slovak public broadcaster STVR, is also suing over non-recognition. He married his partner Ondrej in Hainburg an der Donau, Austria, in 2023. His claim is based on the same refusal to copy, or transcribe, the marriage into the Slovak civil register.
Both cases rely on a November 2025 ruling by the EU's highest court. The Court said member states must recognise same-sex marriages concluded legally in another EU country, if the couple used their free movement rights, the EU right to live and work in another member state, and created or strengthened family life there. Like a driving licence earned abroad, the question is recognition across borders, not a new licence at home. The judgment came from a Polish case. Jakub Cupriak-Trojan and Mateusz Trojan had married in Berlin and challenged the Mazovia governor's refusal to recognise the union. The ruling does not require member states to allow same-sex weddings on their own territory.
One report said the Slovak prime minister personally ordered the registry office not to accept the same-sex couple's marriage. LGBTQ Nation Slovakia is one of six member states listed in EU case materials as giving no official legal recognition to same-sex couples, alongside Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Romania. Recognition for travel and residence across the EU is separate from domestic family law.
The broader context here is a clash between two legal ideas. Bratislava treats registration as barred by its constitutional definition of marriage. The couples treat registration as required by EU citizenship, free movement and mutual recognition across borders. The test will be narrow. Austria meets the place-of-celebration part. The record on residence, use of EU Treaty rights and family life will carry weight.
Looking at enforcement, the court path matters as much as the rule itself. Slovak administrative courts must now read domestic registry law to fit the Court's interpretation, or send questions to Luxembourg under Article 267 TFEU, the procedure for EU legal guidance. Ideas of direct effect, consistent interpretation and primacy, the principle that EU law prevails in conflict, will be in play. A refusal based only on the constitutional definition will be hard to defend if the Luxembourg conditions are met, because the 2025 ruling separates cross-border recognition from any duty to open domestic marriage. The outcome will be watched in Warsaw, Bucharest and Vilnius. A Slovak judgment that follows the 2025 precedent would extend its reach. A judgment that resists it would likely bring a new referral and longer division on an issue the Court tried to settle.
