A Slovak man lost his national – and therefore EU – citizenship after marrying his British male partner and later becoming a British citizen. Slovakia says its marriage exemption does not apply because both spouses are men. Now the country’s Constitutional Court wants the EU’s highest court to decide whether that is lawful.
A Slovak man living in London has lost his citizenship after authorities refused to recognise his same-sex marriage for nationality purposes.
The man, publicly identified in Slovak legal reporting as Lukáš, married his British male partner in the UK in August 2022 and later became a British citizen.
Under Slovak law, citizens who voluntarily acquire another nationality can lose their Slovak citizenship. However, there is an important exemption for people who acquire the citizenship of their spouse during marriage.
The problem?
Slovakia refused to apply that exemption because Lukáš’s spouse is a man.
And because Slovakia defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman, authorities said his British marriage did not qualify.
So yes: the gender of your spouse can apparently determine whether you get to keep your passport.
Same marriage, very different outcome
In March 2024, Lukáš was formally told that he had lost his Slovak citizenship and was required to surrender his Slovak passport and identity card.
That also meant losing his EU citizenship, because EU citizenship depends on holding the nationality of an EU Member State.
This is what makes the case much bigger than a dispute over a marriage certificate.
If Lukáš had married a British woman and acquired her nationality while married, the spousal exemption could potentially have protected his Slovak citizenship.
Because he married a British man, it did not.
That difference is now at the centre of the legal challenge.
Slovakia’s Constitutional Court sends the case to the EU
On 1 July 2026, Slovakia’s Constitutional Court suspended the case and decided to refer questions to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU).
The central issue is whether an EU citizen can lose national and EU citizenship in circumstances where a comparable heterosexual couple would be treated differently.
Importantly, the CJEU has not ruled yet.
The Slovak court is asking the European judges how EU law should be interpreted before it reaches its final decision.
This is not about forcing Slovakia to introduce same-sex marriage
That distinction matters.
The case is not asking the EU to require Slovakia to legalise same-sex marriage domestically.
Instead, it asks whether Slovakia can use its national definition of marriage to create a fundamentally different citizenship outcome for a gay citizen.
That question becomes even more significant because losing Slovak citizenship also means losing rights connected to EU citizenship, including freedom of movement and residence across the Union.
A difficult case – especially after Brexit
The legal picture is complicated by one important detail: Lukáš married in the United Kingdom after Brexit.
That makes the case different from recent EU judgments involving same-sex marriages concluded within the European Union.
In 2025, the CJEU ruled in a Polish case that an EU Member State could not simply refuse to recognise a same-sex marriage legally concluded in another Member State where doing so interfered with EU free-movement and family-life rights.
Here, however, the marriage was celebrated in a country that was already outside the EU.
That means the CJEU will have to consider how far EU citizenship protections extend when the issue concerns a marriage concluded in a third country.
Why this Slovakia same-sex marriage case matters
Slovakia remains one of the EU countries without marriage equality or nationwide registered partnerships for same-sex couples. The case therefore lands in an already difficult political environment for LGBTQ+ people. But at its heart, the issue is remarkably simple.
Two Slovak citizens marry British citizens.
Both later obtain British nationality. One is married to a woman. The other to a man.
Should one be allowed to keep Slovak citizenship while the other loses it?
That is now the question Europe’s highest court has been asked to help answer. Because this is no longer only about whether Slovakia recognises a same-sex marriage.
It is about nationality, EU citizenship and whether being married to a man can legally be the reason you lose both.
And that, I think, is much bigger than paperwork.
