Antonio Tajani, Minister of Italy's Foreign Affarirs, and Basil Russo, president of COPOMIAO
A dramatic legal reversal may unravel Italy’s controversial citizenship-by-descent law.
The Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ), the European Union's highest judicial authority, based in Luxembourg, has been asked to determine whether Italy's 2025 dual citizenship restrictions—affecting millions of Italian Americans—violatede European Union law. If the court rules against Italy, the legislation could be struck down, forcing the Italian government to draft and pass an entirely new law.
In a surprising about-face, Italy's Constitutional Court referred the issue to the ECJ after previously upholding the government's controversial citizenship law.
Antonio Tajani, Minister of Italy's Foreign Affarirs, and Basil Russo, president of COPOMIAO
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A Shock to Italian Americans
Without warning, the Italian government imposed sweeping restrictions in March 2025 to limit eligibility for citizenship by descent to those with an Italian parent or grandparent. The change abruptly ending citizenship hopes for millions of Italian Americans while leaving thousands of pending applications in limbo.
"Our Italian American community is very pleased that the Italian Constitutional Court has taken the unprecedented step of referring this case to the European Court of Justice," said Hon. Basil Russo, president of the Conference of Presidents of Major Italian American Organizations (COPOMIAO). "We are hopeful that the ECJ will overturn Italy's punitive ancestry restrictions that currently prevent millions of Italian Americans from applying for dual citizenship."
For more than three decades, European case law has consistently held that citizenship rights cannot be withdrawn suddenly, disproportionately, or without adequate legal protection.
"It's a 180-degree change of direction," attorney Marco Mellone, one of four lawyers challenging the law, told CNN. "It's a confession that they made a mistake. They had the chance to refer it three months ago and didn't. It's clear they changed their opinion."
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The “Minor Issue”
At the heart of the dispute is a long-standing legal principle recognized by Italian courts: that descendants who qualify under Italy's historical citizenship laws are considered Italians from birth, even if that citizenship has not yet been formally recognized through the application process.
Should the ECJ find that Italy's restrictions violate EU law, the legislation could be invalidated, requiring the Italian parliament to enact a replacement. The court’s ruling could take more than a year.
The citizenship restrictions are not the only legal battle confronting the Italian government. In late 2024, Italy's Ministry of the Interior introduced a controversial administrative interpretation commonly known as the "minor issue."
Under this policy, if the parent of an Italian child born abroad became a naturalized citizen of another country while the child was still a minor, that act would permanently break the child's line of Italian citizenship by descent.
The interpretation was implemented without legislative action and immediately affected applicants whose citizenship cases were already pending.
In the coming months, the European Union court is expected to hear challenges to the "minor issue." The plaintiffs will argue that citizenship by descent is not a privilege granted through an application but a legal status acquired at birth and merely recognized through judicial or administrative procedures. If that principle prevails, they contend, the government cannot retroactively strip individuals of citizenship they already possessed. Instead, any new restrictions should apply only to those born after the law took effect.
Editor's Note:
Editor’s Note: The web site for COPOMIAO is https://copomiao.org
Italy’s Supreme Court of Cassation has a web site: https://www.cortedicassazione.it/en/le_funzioni_della_corte.page
The Court of Justice of the European Union has a web site: https://european-union.europa.eu/institutions-law-budget/institutions-and-bodies/search-all-eu-institutions-and-bodies/court-justice-european-union-cjeu_en
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