Opinion of the Advocate General — ECLI:EU:C:2024:385
Date: 2024-05-07
Language of the case: Romanian
Procedure: Reference for a preliminary ruling
Origin: Romania

Summary C-4/23 – 1 
Case C-4/23 
Summary of the request for a preliminary ruling pursuant to Article 98(1) of 
the Rules of Procedure of the Court of Justice 
Date lodged: 
3 January 2023 
Referring court: 
Judecătoria Sectorului 6 București (Romania) 
Date of the decision to refer: 
11 August 2022 
Applicant: 
M.-A. A. 
Defendants: 
Direcția de Evidență a Persoanelor Cluj 
Direcția pentru Evidența Persoanelor și Administrarea Bazelor de 
Date din Ministerul Afacerilor Interne 
Municipiul Cluj-Napoca 
Intervening parties: 
Consiliul Național pentru Combaterea Discriminării 
Asociația Accept 
  
Subject matter of the main proceedings 
An action by which the applicant M.-A. A. requests (i) that the defendants be 
ordered to enter the following changes in his birth certificate: change of gender 
from female to male, change of first name and change of personal numeric code to 
reflect the male gender, and (ii) that a new birth certificate be issued 
EN 
SUMMARY OF THE REQUEST FOR A PRELIMINARY RULING – CASE C-4/23 
 
2  
Subject matter and legal basis of the request for a preliminary ruling 
Under Article 267 TFEU, interpretation is sought of Article 2 TEU, Articles 18 
and 20 TFEU, as well as Article 21(1) thereof, and Articles 1, 7, 20 and 21 of the 
Charter 
Questions referred for a preliminary ruling 
(1) Does the fact that Article 43(i) and Article 57 of Legea nr. 119/1996 privind 
actele de stare civilă (Law No 119/1996 on civil status documents) do not 
recognise changes in civil status made in another Member State by means of the 
procedure for legal recognition of gender to entries concerning gender and first 
name by a transgender man who has dual nationality (Romanian and of another 
Member State) and require a Romanian citizen to bring, from the outset, separate 
judicial proceedings in Romania against the local Public Service for Personal 
Records and Civil Status – proceedings which have been held to lack clarity and 
foreseeability by the European Court of Human Rights (X and Y v. Romania, nos. 
2145/16 and 20607/16, 19 January 2021) and which may lead to a decision 
contrary to that taken by the other Member State – constitute an obstacle to the 
exercise of the right to European citizenship (Article 20 of the Treaty on the 
Functioning of the European Union) and/or the right of citizens of the Union to 
move and reside freely (Article 21 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the 
European Union and Article 45 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the 
European Union) in conditions of dignity, equality before the law and non-
discrimination (Article 2 of the Treaty on European Union; Article 18 of the 
Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, and Articles 1, 20 and 21 of the 
Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union), respecting the right to 
private and family life (Article 7 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the 
European Union)? 
(2) Does the departure of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern 
Ireland from the European Union affect the answer to the above question, in 
particular where (i) the procedure for changing civil status was commenced before 
Brexit and was completed during the transition period, and (ii) the impact of 
Brexit means that the person cannot benefit from rights attached to European 
citizenship, including the right to free movement and residence, except on the 
basis of Romanian identity or travel documents in which that person appears with 
a female gender and first name, contrary to the gender identity that has already 
been legally recognised? 
Provisions of European Union law and case-law relied on 
Article 2 TEU; Articles 18 and 20 TFEU, as well as Article 21(1) thereof; 
Articles 1, 7, 20 and 21 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European 
Union 
ASOCIAȚIA ACCEPT 
 
3 
Judgments of 14 December 2021, Stolichna obshtina, rayon ‘Pancharevo’ 
(C-490/20), paragraphs 41, 42, 44 to 48, 52, 54 and 56; of 8 June 2017, Freitag 
(C-541/15), paragraphs 36 to 39; of 14 October 2008, Grunkin and Paul 
(C-353/06), paragraphs 28 and 29; [and] of 2 October 2003, Garcia Avello 
(C-148/02), paragraphs 22 to 24 
Provisions of national law relied on 
Legea nr. 119/1996 privind actele de stare civilă (Law No 119/1996 on civil status 
documents) 
Article 9: ‘In the event that the civil registrar or the official performing civil status 
functions refuses to draw up a document or to record an entry falling within his or 
her competence, the injured party may bring proceedings before the competent 
court, in accordance with the law’. 
Article 43(i): ‘In birth certificates, and, where applicable, in marriage or death 
certificates, entries shall be recorded regarding changes in a person’s civil status 
in the following cases: … 
(i) change of gender, after a final judicial decision …’ 
Article 57(1): ‘The annulment, supplementation or amendment of civil status 
documents and of entries recorded therein can be made only pursuant to a final 
judicial decision’. 
Succinct presentation of the facts and procedure in the main proceedings 
1 The applicant M.-A. A., who identifies as a transgender male and goes by the 
pronoun ‘he’, was born on 24 August 1992 in the municipality of Cluj-Napoca 
(Romania), and was registered with the female gender at birth. 
2 After moving to the United Kingdom with his parents, the applicant obtained 
nationality of that State on 21 April 2016. As the applicant identified as male, on 
21 February 2017, by means of the Deed Poll procedure, he changed his name and 
title in that State from female to male, namely from Ms. M.-A. A. to Mr. M.-A. A. 
3 Following the initiation of that procedure, the applicant changed a number of 
documents issued by the United Kingdom authorities, namely a driving licence 
and a British passport. 
4 On 29 June 2020, the applicant also obtained in the United Kingdom a Gender 
Recognition Certificate confirming the male gender identity. 
5 After the completion of those procedures in the United Kingdom, in May 2021 the 
applicant contacted the Romanian authorities, namely the Direcția de Evidență a 
Persoanelor Cluj – Serviciul stare civilă (Cluj Directorate for Personal Records – 
SUMMARY OF THE REQUEST FOR A PRELIMINARY RULING – CASE C-4/23 
 
4  
Civil Status Service), requesting, directly on the basis of documents already 
obtained in the United Kingdom (the Deed Poll and the Gender Identity 
Certificate), that the change of gender and first name be entered in the birth 
certificate, that the appropriate change be made to the personal numeric code to 
reflect the male gender, and that a birth certificate, corresponding to the other first 
name, which (i) indicates the male gender, and (ii) includes the personal numeric 
code beginning with the number 1, be issued. 
6 That request was rejected because the Romanian authorities considered that, under 
national legislation, a change of gender can be recorded only when the person’s 
change of gender has been authorised by a final judicial decision, and not on the 
basis of a certificate regarding the recognition of gender identity. 
7 By an action brought on 14 September 2021 before the referring court (the 
Judecătoria Sectorului 6 București (Court of First Instance, Sector 6, Bucharest)), 
M.-A. A. requests that the defendants be ordered to make those changes to his 
birth certificate and to issue him with a new birth certificate which reflects those 
changes. 
8 The Consiliul Național pentru Combaterea Discriminării (National Council for 
Combating Discrimination) has been called upon to intervene in the case, and 
Asociația Accept’s ancillary application for leave to intervene in support of the 
applicant has been granted. 
The essential arguments of the parties in the main proceedings 
9 M.-A. A. emphasises that he is not asking the [referring] court to authorise the 
change of gender, but rather (i) to apply EU law directly and as a matter of 
priority, and (ii) to order the defendants to make changes to the birth certificate so 
as to bring the entries relating to gender, first name and personal numeric code 
into line with his gender identity, which was already definitively recognised in the 
United Kingdom when it was still a Member State of the European Union. This 
would enable him to exercise the right to move and reside freely within the 
European Union, using a travel document that corresponds to his male gender 
identity. 
10 In addition, the obligation to bring new judicial proceedings in Romania directly 
concerning the authorisation of the change of gender exposes the applicant to the 
risk of obtaining a solution contrary to that chosen by the United Kingdom 
authorities. The European Court of Human Rights has already classified 
proceedings in Romania as lacking clarity and foreseeability (judgment [of the 
European Court of Human Rights] of 19 January 2021, X and Y v. Romania, nos. 
2145/16 and 20607/16). 
ASOCIAȚIA ACCEPT 
 
5 
Succinct presentation of the reasoning in the request for a preliminary ruling 
11 According to the referring court, the outcome of the case before it depends on the 
interpretation of EU law, which takes precedence over national law, given that the 
right to European citizenship and the right of citizens of the Union to move and 
reside freely preclude an outcome under national law which requires the person 
concerned, who has dual nationality, to bring new judicial proceedings in one of 
the States of which that person is a national, even though that person has already 
successfully completed proceedings (regardless of whether those proceedings are 
of an administrative or a judicial nature) in another Member State of which that 
person is a national. 
12 The outcome of the case before the referring court also depends, according to that 
court, on determining the consequences of the departure of the United Kingdom of 
Great Britain and Northern Ireland from the European Union. Thus, in the event 
that the Court answers the first question in the affirmative, given that the first 
procedure for recognition of gender identity was commenced in the United 
Kingdom before that State’s departure from the European Union and was 
completed after that event, it is necessary to clarify whether the Member State to 
which a request is made is obliged to recognise the legal effects of the procedure 
for changing gender identity carried out in a State which was a Member State at 
the time the procedure was commenced but which had already left the European 
Union at the time that procedure was completed.