KPH w sprawie zaświadczeń

KPH będzie przesłuchiwane przed Parlamentem Europejskim w sprawie odmowy zaświadczeń.

PRZESłUCHANIE W SPRAWIE SKARGI KAMPANII PRZECIW HOMOFOBII W KOMISJI PETYCJI PARLAMENTU EUROPEJSKIEGO

31 maja 2010 (poniedziałek) w Brukseli, w godzinach 15.00-18.30 odbędzie się posiedzenie Komisji Petycji Parlamentu Europejskiego, na którym rozpatrywana będzie petycja Kampanii Przeciw Homofobii (KPH) – polskiej organizacji działającej na rzecz równych praw gejów I lesbijek, w sprawie dyskryminacyjnych praktyk polskiej administracji publicznej.
Kampania Przeciw Homofobii złożyła petycje, w której przedstawiła dyskryminacyjne praktyki polskich Urzędów Stanu Cywilnego, polegające na odmowie wydawania zaświadczeń o stanie cywilnym polskim gejom i lesbijkom zamierzającym zawrzeć związek partnerski lub małżeństwo jednopłciowe w kraju, w którym takie związki są uznawane przez prawo.
Zdaniem KPH praktyki takie łamią jedna z podstawowych zasad UE jaka jest swoboda przepływu osób w granicach UE oraz łamią prawo osób homoseksualnych do poszanowania życia rodzinnego i prywatnego.

Przedstawiciel KPH, Krzysztof Śmiszek będzie prezentował ww. problem podczas posiedzenia Komisji Petycji.

Petition N°  632/2008
Dear Madame Chair/Dear Mr. Chair
On behalf of Campaign Against Homophobia, a Polish nation-wide organisation dealing with rights of gay and lesbian people, I would like to thank you and all the Members of the Committee on Petitions for allowing us to present our petition at today’s hearing. It is a great day for Polish gay and lesbian community to learn that the European Parliament is willing to hear about problems faced by many members of our community.
The petition lodged by our organisation in 2008 raises a very specific problem which, in our point of view, violates the European freedom of movement as well as basic human rights as right to privacy and family life. Our petition concerns situations when Polish administration denies granting marital status certificates to Polish citizens who intent to contract same-sex marriage or enter into register partnership in other European Union Member States.
Dear Members of the Committee,
As you might be aware, Poland is one the last countries in the European Union which does not recognize same-sex relations and does not grant them any rights  neither of economic nor of family nature. Since Poland entered the structure of the European Union, many of Polish gays and lesbians moved out from Poland and, naturally, entered into relationships with foreigners.
Most of the EU countries legally recognizing same-sex relations require the fiancés to prove that they are not already married, which is a pre-condition for them being able to marry or to enter into a registered partnership. Normally, Polish citizens can obtain such documents from Marital Status Offices. But unfortunately, the Polish administration denies issuing required documents for Polish citizens wanting to receive marital certificates for the purpose of entering same-sex relations abroad, saying that there is no legal basis for it since the Polish legal system does not recognize and does not know such institutions as same-sex marriage or same-sex registered partnerships. At the same time, Polish citizens wanting to enter different-sex marriage abroad, are granted abovementioned documents without any problems.
Taking this situation into account we believe that the only reason of this unlawful denial is the sexual orientation of the applicants who ask Polish public administration for issuing documents required by foreign administrations. Our organisation received several complaints from Polish gays and lesbians who wanted to legalise their relations, among others, in Germany, the United Kingdom, Denmark and Sweden. They were all refused. We believe that the scale of this phenomenon is much broader.
We consider that there are strong arguments to support the conclusion that the Polish administrative practice of denying marital status certificates to Polish citizens who have exercised their fundamental right to free movement and who intend to contract same sex marriage or enter into civil partnership in other EU Member states is contrary to EU law. We would like to emphasize the meaning of article 20 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, which recognizes the right of all EU citizens to move and reside freely within the territory of the Member States. In our opinion, the practice of Polish administration constitutes a violation of the right to respect of family life which in turn the European Court of Justice has consistently held to be a restriction of the right of free movement. We also consider that such practice can not be justified under a public policy exception.      
We believe that even the national administrative practices regarding the granting of marital status certificates does not fall within the scope of EU law at first glance, this however does not mean that the Member States when exercising their competences can disregard the overarching obligations arising from the EU Treaties.
At the end we would also like to point out that the right to respect of family life is also protected by the Charter of Fundamental Rights. It is also one of the fundamental rights guaranteed by art. 8 of the European Convention of Human Rights signed in Rome in 1950 which, according to the European Court of Justice’s settled case-law, are protected also in EU law. We believe that this aspect can not be overseen by the European Institutions when assessing the problem presented in our petition especially in the view of imminent accession of the EU to the Convention.
Dear Madame Chair/Mr. Chair, Dear Members of the Committee
I thank you for your attention