Adviser denies same-sex union abroad offers a ticket to stay in EU

An adviser to the EU's top court found that a British woman's civil union with her Romanian partner, formalized during a visit to Italy, does not entitle her to residence rights in Romania. Advocate General Laila Medina concluded that a legal act of personal significance is not the same as having actually lived as a family in the country where it happened.

The couple, who had never lived in Italy and were on separate continents when they entered the union, are now fighting a Romanian order for the British partner to leave. Medina found no evidence the Romanian partner's dependence on her spouse was severe enough to force a departure from the EU, though a national court still has to check.

Legal scholars flagged the unequal choices Romania's rules leave couples, since opposite-sex partners can simply marry to qualify while same-sex partners cannot. The case now heads to the full court, whose ruling will guide an appellate court in Oradea that has no further avenue for appeal.

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