According to the EU Court of Justice, European Union member states must allow transgender citizens to update their names and gender markers on identification documents,
The EU’s highest court ruled that Bulgaria’s ban on trans people updating their names and gender markers on birth certificates, established in 2023, violates the right to freedom of movement between EU countries guaranteed. All EU citizens’ right to freedom of movement supersedes any member country’s laws, the court said.
The Court agreed, ruling 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”.
Such a restriction violates the right to respect for private life guaranteed by the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, which, the Court said, “protects gender identity and obliges Member States to provide for clear, accessible and effective procedures for the legal recognition of it”.
The European Court of Human Rights also ruled in favour of a same-sex couple in 2023, acknowledging that Orban's laws had failed to recognise them as legally married abroad.
