After more than a year of debate concerning the compatibility with the principles of the Italian Constitution of the new citizenship legislation introduced by Law No. 91/1992, as amended by Decree-Law No. 36/2025, converted into Law No. 74/2025, the issue remains unresolved and is likely to remain at the centre of legal debate for some time to come.
By Order No. 147/2026, the Italian Constitutional Court has referred a preliminary question to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), asking the European court to assess the compatibility of the new legislation with the principles and provisions of European Union law. This referral has therefore extended the debate from the domestic constitutional level to the supranational level.
In order to understand the reasons for this referral, it is necessary to recall that Italy, as a Member State of the European Union (EU), by acceding to the European Treaties, has conferred specific competences on the EU in certain areas and has consequently recognized the primacy of EU law over incompatible national provisions in matters falling within EU competence.
In this regard, although citizenship falls within national competence, Article 9 TEU and Article 20 TFEU expressly provide for provisions concerning European Union citizenship. According to these provisions, “every person holding the nationality of a Member State shall be a citizen of the Union.” Accordingly, nationals of Member States hold, in addition to their national citizenship, the status of citizens of the European Union.
It was therefore precisely in light of the principles enshrined in Article 9 TEU and Article 20 TFEU, and of the fact that Italian citizenship also entails the acquisition of the status of citizen of the European Union and, consequently, access to rights directly conferred by the EU legal order, that the Italian Constitutional Court deemed it necessary to refer the matter to the CJEU for an assessment of the compatibility of the new Italian citizenship rules with the aforementioned European principles.
An answer to the question referred by the Italian Constitutional Court will therefore require awaiting the conclusion of preliminary ruling proceedings in Case C-816/26 before the CJEU, which, on average, take approximately 16–18 months.
At present, the interested parties, as well as the EU institutions and the Member States, have been granted a non-extendable period of two months and ten days from the date of notification – 26 August 2026 – to submit written observations or pleadings.
This written stage will most likely be followed by an oral stage, including a hearing before the Court in Luxembourg, after which the judgment will be delivered.
It is hoped that the CJEU’s ruling will provide a clear and definitive answer to an issue of significant social and legal importance, namely the acquisition of citizenship by descent, thereby contributing to a more certain delineation of the limits and conditions within which national legislation must comply with the principles of the European Union legal order.
Feel free to reach out to our citizenship team for any clarifications you may need on this topic.
This article was written by Giuditta De Ricco and Diletta Furesi.
