The highest court in Italy has made it easier for same-sex couples to adopt each other’s biological children.

A decision by the court, however; does not make the process of adopting each other’s children automatic for same-sex couples.

The Cassation Court ruling, which came on Wednesday, bolstered lower courts’ rulings on the issue of so-called “step-child adoption” in Italy.

The decision has been hailed by Italian LGBT rights groups, who also criticised it for not going far enough to automatically recognise LGBT families.

The organisations said the goal would be to have the biological child of a same-sex partner to be recognised from birth if a couple are in a same-sex union.

A lesbian couple won their court battle to adopt each other’s children in late April – other cases where women have been allowed to legally adopt each other’s children are at appeal stages,

Efforts to legalise same-sex civil unions recently saw adoption rights stripped out, in an effort to appease Catholic politicians.

The bill passed in the Senate after having the adoption provision removed.

The civil unions bill came about after the European Court of Human Rights upheld complaints of discrimination by same-sex couples, who currently have no legal rights in Italy

However, it has stirred up resentment between the LGBT community and the country’s powerful anti-gay Catholic lobbying groups – with large rallies and political manoeuvring against the measure.