SOFIA — A Sofia court has backed the right of a same-sex couple to live in Bulgaria, activists announced Wednesday, in the first such case for the EU nation that does not recognize gay marriage.

The court claim was brought up by an Australian woman who was banned from residing in Bulgaria in 2017 together with her French spouse after the couple got married in France in mid-2016, the youth LGBT organization Action said.

But the ruling on June 29 by the Sofia administrative court 29 overturned the interior ministry's migration directorate ban, saying that upholding it would "hinder the right of the EU partner to move and reside freely in the territory of the EU."

The ruling was also in line with a decision of the EU's top court of justice in Luxembourg on June 5, stating that EU laws on freedom of movement oblige all member states to allow residency of the non-European spouses of EU citizens, including same-sex partners, even if they did not recognize same-sex marriage. Read more via VOA