BUCHAREST (Reuters) - Romania must give residency rights to the same-sex spouses of European Union citizens, the socially conservative country’s top court ruled on Wednesday.

The Constitutional Court’s landmark ruling comes after a six-year legal battle of Romanian citizen Adrian Coman whose American husband, Robert Claibourn Hamilton, was denied residency because gay marriage is illegal in Romania.

The couple, who married in Brussels, took their case all the way to the Constitutional Court last year, which then referred it to the European Court of Justice.

In June, the ECJ ruled that European Union states which have not legalised gay marriage must still offer same-sex spouses residency rights equal to those of straight couples.

“In the arguments of the ruling, the Court has applied the considerations mentioned by the ECJ,” the Romanian judges said in a statement. Read more via Reuters