The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has ruled that the principle of freedom of movement means that EU law trumps national law when it came to the civil registering of persons who have changed sex.
The top EU court ruled that legislation in any member state “which does not permit the amendment of the gender data of one of its nationals who has exercised his or her right to freedom of
movement is contrary to EU law”.
The case concerned a Bulgarian national was registered at birth as being male, with a name, personal identification number and identity documents corresponding to that sex – who now lives in Italy and undertaking hormone therapy.
The court said proceedings were initiated “before the Bulgarian courts seeking a declaration that she is a female person and to have her civil status data amended on her birth certificate. Despite the medical opinions and legal assessments confirming the gender identity claimed, her request was rejected.”
“According to national legislation” as interpreted by the Bulgarian Supreme Court, “the term ‘sex’ must be understood in its biological sense, excluding any amendment of the particulars relating to sex, name and identification number. The public interest, based on the moral and/or religious values of Bulgarian society, thus prevails over the interests of transgender persons.”
But the Bulgarian Supreme Court had doubts that the national legislation would be compatible with EU law and referred the matter to the EU Court of Justice.
The ECJ held that EU law precludes legislation of a Member State which does not permit the amendment of the gender data in the civil status registers of one of its nationals who has exercised his or her right to move and reside freely in another Member State.
Rights campaigners in Athena Forum, a European-wide initiative said the ruling was an abuse of the principle of free movement, claiming “judgements like this are a serious threat to democracy, the rule of law and the European institutions, which for decades have been led into increasingly extreme ideology and obediently follow along, fed by transactivist NGOs, queer academics, liberal media and “progressive” politics.”
“This is the reason why trust in the European project, the EU, its institutions and courts is steadily eroding. Who would have thought that “free movement” across Europe, or rather the EU, would be abused and backfire like this?” the campaign group said.
“The latest ruling of the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) on legal sex change recognition is out and is being celebrated by transactivist NGOs as a big win, with claims that EU countries must now provide legal sex change recognition for their citizens who have moved abroad,” they said.
“Judgments like this are a serious threat to democracy, the rule of law and the European institutions, which for decades have been led into increasingly extreme ideology and obediently follow along, fed by transactivist NGOs, queer academics, liberal media and “progressive” politics,” they added.
“The political implementation of gender identity (each person’s deeply felt internal and individual experience of gender, as per the Yogyakarta Principles), by overriding any reference to biological reality and falsifying legal documents, leads to a fundamental erosion of women’s rights and legal protections.”
“All transactivist celebrations aside, this judgment does not mean that legal sex change systems must now exist across the EU. Member States still have significant discretion in how they implement it (e.g. introducing a clarifying civil-status certificate for identification purposes, without rewriting birth certificates or restructuring civil registers).”
“It is shocking that we ever got into this situation. But it is long overdue that we organise across Europe to call out the institutional irresponsibility and the expanding harms of the push for gender identity.”
Lawyer and Editor of The European Conservative, Ellen Fantini, said it was “obviously a terrible ruling” and that “the larger absurdity is that the EU court’s “primacy” over national courts is an EU-judge-made principle.”
“It asserts that when EU law conflicts with national law, EU law wins — and national courts must follow the CJEU’s interpretation, even if it requires setting aside or ignoring parts of their own country’s constitution or statutes. In other words, EU judges themselves made up a rule that they are the boss judges. National sovereignty be damned, I guess.”
Think-tank MCC Brussels said: “not only is the ruling an attack on common sense and national democratic rights, it is an outstanding example of how the EU pushes the normalisation of “EU values” on LGBT issues through the supposedly neutral legal architecture of the common market. Those creating the EU market would have never imagined that rules to allow free trade would be used to push radical transgender ideology. ”
EU COURT CLAIMING ABSOLUTE POWER, CRITIC SAYS
And they added that it was their belief that the decision was a step towards the same ruling for gender self-id, writing that “the ruling concerns an individual who has undergone some degree of “medical transition”. But given the EU’s latest NGO-driven push for radical “self-ID”, it is presumably only a matter of time before the EU courts also rule that anyone must be recognised as their self-chosen gender, regardless of what steps they have taken to transition.”
“Also snuck into the ruling is a dangerous assertion of the absolute power of the EU court,” MCC Brussels said. “The ruling insisted that ” EU law precludes a court from being bound by its constitutional court’s interpretation where that interpretation impedes the application of EU law as interpreted by the Court”.
However, supporters of the EU Court decision said “the Court has created a new legal obligation for member states to provide functioning systems for nationals who have moved abroad”.
Adi Petrov of the Bilitis Resource Centre Foundation described it as “an important step toward restoring dignity and legal certainty,” adding that Bulgaria must now bring its laws into line with EU requirements.