8/11/22, 9:16 AM CURIA - Documents requests that actions be performed with regard to the registration of civil status or applies for a Polish identity document or a [Powszechny Elektroniczny System Ewidencji Ludności (PESEL) number (an identification number for natural persons who are Polish nationals)].’ 14 Article 107 of the Law on Civil Status Records is worded as follows: ‘The Head of the Civil Registry Office shall refuse to transcribe a document if: 1) the document is not recognised in the country of issue as a civil status document, or does not have the authority of an official document, or was not issued by a competent authority, or raises doubts as to its authenticity, or confirms an event other than a birth, marriage or death; 2) the foreign document was created as a result of transcription in a country other than the country in which the event took place; 3) the transcription would be contrary to the fundamental principles of the legal order of the Republic of Poland.’ The dispute in the main proceedings and the question referred for a preliminary ruling 15 K.S., a Polish national, and S.V.D., an Irish national, were married in Ireland in 2018. 16 In 2018, their daughter, S.R.S.-D., was born in Spain. The birth of S.R.S.-D. was registered by the Spanish civil registry office on the basis of a joint statement made by the birth mother of the child, K.S., and her wife, S.V.D. That birth certificate designates K.S. and S.V.D. as ‘Mother A’ and ‘Mother B’, respectively. 17 K.S. and S.V.D. applied for the birth certificate issued by the Spanish authorities for S.R.S.-D., who is of Polish nationality, to be transcribed into the Polish register of civil status. 18 By decision of 16 April 2019, that application was refused by the Head of the Civil Registry Office, on the ground that such a transcription would be contrary to the fundamental principles of the legal order of the Republic of Poland. As K.S. and S.V.D. did not challenge the decision refusing their application, that decision became final on 30 April 2019. 19 On 25 September 2019, K.S. sent a request for assistance to the Commissioner for Human Rights, stating that S.R.S.-D. had no identity document, as the application for a Polish passport for that child had been refused on the ground that her birth certificate had not been transcribed into the Polish register of civil status. By letter of 17 February 2019, the Irish authorities responsible for identity documents informed the Commissioner for Human Rights that the child was not of Irish nationality and was therefore not entitled to an identity card; nor was she entitled to a passport. 20 The Commissioner for Human Rights then brought an action, on behalf of K.S. and S.V.D., before the referring court against the decision of the Head of the Civil Registry Office of 16 April 2019 refusing to transcribe into the Polish register of civil status the birth certificate which had been issued by the Spanish authorities in respect of their daughter. 21 During the proceedings before the referring court, the administrative authority of first instance also refused an application for an identity card for S.R.S.-D., on the ground that, under Polish law, a child may have only a woman and a man as parents. As the referring court had considered it reasonable to await the decision of the administrative authority of second instance, the Commissioner for Human Rights, by letter of 30 July 2020, stated that the decision refusing the application for an identity card had been confirmed at second instance. 22 According to the referring court, the provisions currently applicable do not effectively guarantee the right to freedom of movement of a child such as S.R.S.-D., who ‘is indisputably a Polish citizen’ and, therefore, a citizen of the Union, since the documents necessary for the exercise of that freedom, namely a Polish identity card or a Polish passport, cannot be issued to that child because the parents https://curia.europa.eu/juris/document/document_print.jsf?mode=DOC&pageIndex=0&docid=262081&part=1&doclang=EN&text=&dir=&occ=first… 4/9