Spain’s Top Court Risks EU Rebuke Over Migrant Regularization Plan

Spain’s Supreme Court has started a legal challenge against the government’s plan to regularize hundreds of thousands of undocumented migrants. But legal experts say the court’s arguments are weak and could backfire. The court asked the European Union’s top tribunal to review the plan, which was approved in April. However, the reasoning in the court’s own document appears flawed. The court cites a 2024 EU regulation that was not in force when Spain adopted the regularization. A law cannot be broken before it exists, the experts note. The main argument centers on EU rules requiring the return of irregular migrants and on legal guarantees for asylum procedures. The court claims these rules block mass regularization. But the same document admits that EU treaties give member states the right to decide how many foreigners to admit for work. That is exactly what Spain’s plan does. The court also says the regularization has no conditions. In fact, migrants must meet personal requirements, and the permit is only temporary. If they do not find a job or have family ties, it will not be renewed. Another point is that Spain did not notify the European Commission or coordinate with other EU states. But the people being regularized are already in Spain. The permit does not allow them to move freely to other EU countries. They would need a separate permit to live elsewhere. The court is also upset that the plan was passed as a lower-level law, not a formal act of parliament. However, this has nothing to do with EU law. If the Supreme Court sends these weak arguments to the EU court, it risks a strong rejection that could embarrass Spain’s highest judges. As one legal observer put it, “the court started building the house from the roof.”