The EU's top court has ruled that same-sex parents and their children must be recognised as a family in all member states.

In a landmark ruling on Tuesday, the European Court of Justice (CJEU) said that if one country acknowledges a parental relationship with a child, then every member state should do the same in order to guarantee the child's right to free movement.

The case came before the court after Bulgarian authorities refused to give a birth certificate to the new-born daughter of a same-sex couple on the basis that a child cannot have two mothers.

Bulgarian Kalina Ivanova and British Gibraltar-born Jane Jones are both registered as the mothers of Sara, who was born in Spain in 2019.

But neither parents are of Spanish descent, meaning citizenship in that country is not allowed and under the British Nationality Act of 1981, Jones cannot transfer British citizenship to her daughter as she was born in Gibraltar.

Hungary's controversial move to criminalise support of asylum seekers infringes EU law, the bloc's top court has ruled.

The so-called "Stop Soros" legislation, which was passed in June 2018 by the Hungarian parliament, outlawed helping illegal immigrants claim asylum and apply for residence inside the country, with punishments of up to one year in prison for anyone charged.

The text also made it more difficult to access international protection by restricting the right to asylum only to cases where people arrive from a country where their life or freedom are considered at risk.

The legislation, supported by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and his ruling party Fidesz, was immediately condemned by Brussels.

Orbán is one of the EU's leading voices against migration and often exploits the divisive topic to attack his political adversaries.

The European Commission opened an infringement procedure in July 2018 in a bid to force the government to reverse course. As the law stayed in place, the Commission ended up referring the matter to the EU's Court of Justice (CJEU).

continue reading

The Court of Justice of the European Union ordered Poland to immediately stop lignite mining in the Turów mine on Friday, leading to PiS party representatives criticising the ruling.

On Monday, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki announced that the Polish government “will certainly not only enter into negotiations with the Czech side, but also present new arguments to the Court of Justice of the European Union.”

Morawiecki stated that “the CJEU’s decision is dangerous both from the point of view of potential environmental threats, because it may even threaten an environmental catastrophe, as well as for Poland’s energy security and for ensuring work for 5,000 people working there.”

He stressed that “our Czech and sometimes German neighbours are disturbed by this mine”, and “on the other side of the border in the Czech Republic and also on the German side, there are mines and power plants that function, are doing well and do not bother anyone”.

The head of government announced that during the European Council summit that began on Monday, he will talk to Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš on the topic.

Czech Environment Minister Richard Brabec said on Monday he regrets that Poland had not taken the Czech demands seriously in the past and that the case had to reach the EU Court of Justice.

continue reading