Bulgarian Court has Recognized the Rights of a Same-sex Couple

The administrative court in Sofia-city has allowed the residence of married homosexual couple in Bulgaria with the resulting rights, bTV announced.

Australian Kristina and French Mariama have married in June 2016, signed in France. Later that year, Kristina was granted a residence permit in Bulgaria on the basis of Directive 2004/38 / EC on the right of free movement and residence in the EU. This directive states that every citizen of the European Union has freedom of movement for himself and for his family within the Union, even if his spouse is not a national of an EU Member State, as is the case with Kristina.

However, the Migration Directorate of the Ministry of Interior refuses in 2017 the Australian to reside in BUlgaria on the grounds that same-sex marriages are not allowed under the Bulgarian Constitution. The Administrative Court has accepted that EU law precludes a Member State from refusing a third-country national married to a Union citizen the right to reside in the territory of that Member State even on the grounds that the law of that country does not provide for marriage between persons of the same sex.