The Supreme Court dismisses taking the regularization of immigrants to the European justice system

BarcelonaThe Supreme Court will not bring the regularization of immigrants to European justice. According to the high court, it will not raise a preliminary ruling to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) on the decree approved by the Spanish government to regularize the situation of 1.2 million immigrants. In the same vein, the third chamber of the Supreme Court also dismisses applying the precautionary measure requested by the governments of the Generalitat Valenciana and Aragon, which involved suspending the regularization until European justice ruled. In summary, the Supreme Court will continue to study the appeals without resorting to European justice.

After the Spanish government approved the regularization, the Supreme Court expressed doubts about the legal fit of the decree within European law. In fact, it asked the parties to submit to the CJEU "an interpretive preliminary ruling in relation to a series of points in the royal decree that could, in their case, conflict with European Union law." The State's legal representation opposed resorting to European justice, but, on the other hand, the Valencian Country and Aragon did support this option. In fact, it is these two communities that have challenged the regularization.

When the Supreme Court raised its legal doubts about the regularization, it focused on whether the decree contradicted the rules implementing the European Union's (EU) Migration and Asylum Pact, which entered into force on June 12. Furthermore, the court also considered whether it could clash with the EU's return directive and questioned whether irregular immigrants would be granted the right to temporary residence without being subjected to a return order, taking into account the exceptions stipulated by the community norm.

The Supreme Court also questioned whether the EU regulation allowed a state to adopt and apply a regularization process through a "sub-legal" rule. Finally, it warned of a potential clash with the Schengen Borders Code. The court recalled that a migrant who obtains a one-year temporary residence permit acquires the right to "freely circulate within the Schengen area" for 90 days within 180-day periods and doubted whether this could be done without prior coordination with the other EU member states.