A judgment by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has confirmed that same-sex spouses of EU citizens are included in the definition of spouse in terms of freedom of movement. What this essentially means is that if a same-sex couple lawfully got married in their EU member state, other EU member states, even if they do not permit same-sex marriage, they must treat them as different-sex married couples who have the right to exercise the freedom of movement.

The court press release notes that "...in the directive on the exercise of freedom of movement the term 'spouse', which refers to a person joined to another person by the bonds of marriage, is gender-neutral and may therefore cover the same-sex spouse of an EU citizen...".

Same-sex spouses of EU nationals must therefore now be acknowledged and granted residence rights on an equal basis.

 "Equality, fairness and pragmatism were at the core of today's verdict from Luxembourg. The CJEU has acknowledged that rainbow families should be recognised equally in the eyes of the law on freedom of movement. Now we want to see the Romanian authorities to move swiftly to make this judgment a reality." said Evelyne Paradis, ILGA-Europe Executive Director, as the decision was announced.

In July 2017, Malta made history by legalising same-sex marriage and same-sex adoption. This has been an achievement of Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and the Labour government of which they are most proud of.

As of March 2018, 15 European countries legally recognise and perform same-sex marriage: Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom. In Austria, marriages will be legal from 1 January 2019. An additional 10 EU countries legally recognise some form of civil union, namely Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Liechtenstein, Slovenia and Switzerland.