Italy's Constitutional Court on June 9 referred to the Court of Justice of the European Union a constitutional challenge to Law 74/2025, the so-called Tajani Decree that restricts recognition of Italian citizenship by descent.

The Corte Costituzionale, in order No. 147/2026 made public on Thursday, suspended proceedings in two lower-court cases from Mantua and Campobasso and asked whether Article 3-bis complies with EU law when applied to people born abroad before the law took effect.

The referral reverses an April decision. In that ruling, the same court rejected an earlier request to send the question to Luxembourg, holding that existing case law was sufficient to conclude the law did not breach EU rules.

What does the law change?

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's government adopted Law 74/2025 in March 2025, and Parliament later approved it. The statute ended a regime without generational limits and required applicants to demonstrate closer ties to Italy. Article 3-bis treats certain descendants born abroad — including those born before the law's entry into force — as never having acquired Italian citizenship unless they meet new exceptions.

Why the Brazilian connection matters

Brazil hosts the largest community of Italian descendants outside Italy, an estimated 30 million people. For decades, Brazilians with distant Italian ancestry could claim recognition through administrative channels or lawsuits. The new law curtailed those routes.

What happens in the meantime?

The order does not strike down the law and does not automatically suspend every pending citizenship case. Law 74/2025 stays in force, and individual judges decide whether to pause similar litigation while awaiting Luxembourg's answer.

Gabriel Ezra Mizrahi, founder of Clube do Passaporte, a consultancy specializing in European citizenship and migration planning, said the referral reshapes how citizenship cases will proceed, even though it produces no uniform immediate effect.

"Some judges may decide to stay pending cases rather than apply the current law while awaiting guidance from the European court, but no court is required to do so," Mizrahi said. He estimated the CJEU could take one to two years to rule, even if the case receives priority.

Andrey José Taffner Fraga, a lawyer coordinating the Trentino Circles of Santa Catarina and Paraná, said the Constitutional Court recognized that decisions on Italian citizenship also affect EU citizenship, which every Italian national holds by virtue of EU member-state nationality.

Taffner said the referral opens a new chapter by taking the issue beyond Italian courts. The CJEU will examine whether applying the new rules, including to people born before they took effect, satisfies EU citizenship rules.

What is the Court of Cassation doing?

In a separate May ruling, the Court of Cassation, Italy's court of last instance for ensuring uniform interpretation of statute, held that people seeking recognition of citizenship may sue not only after an application is denied or delayed, but also when administrative barriers prevent them from filing one. The court reaffirmed that citizenship by descent is recognized rather than granted and, under the prior legal framework, existed from birth. It did not address the constitutionality or retroactivity of Article 3-bis.

The Court of Cassation is expected to take up the temporal reach of the law and whether it applies to people whom earlier case law treated as Italian citizens from birth.

Why did the Constitutional Court uphold the law in April?

In its April ruling, the Constitutional Court held that the law did not strip anyone of citizenship already acquired. The judges treated the legislation as creating an original bar to acquisition, allowing certain descendants to be treated as if they had never obtained Italian citizenship.

Arno Dal Ri, professor of international law at the Federal University of Santa Catarina, said states retain broad authority over nationality rules.

"The procedure adopted by Italy is not improper, considering that it has the authority to expand or narrow the criteria for granting nationality," Dal Ri said. "What is at issue are some more technical and narrowly defined questions, such as how far the law may apply retroactively to people who were born before it was enacted."

Until the CJEU rules, practitioners should expect a patchwork: Law 74/2025 stays on the books, lower-court handling will diverge, and the citizenship-by-descent dispute remains unresolved.