Spain’s Supreme Court has decided not to refer the government’s migrant amnesty up to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), as had been widely reported in the country.

This was confirmed Wednesday by court sources to state broadcaster RTVE, who note that the high court also refused to suspend the royal decree that enacted the amnesty, something detractors of the measure have called for.

Spain’s controversial migrant amnesty was approved by the government in April and gained international headlines for offering residence and work permits to undocumented migrants who were already living in Spain before January 1st, 2026.

Initial estimates put the number of applicants at around 800,00, but government figures reveal that over 1.3 million applied before the deadline.

READ ALSO: Will Spain’s amnesty cause a spike in irregular migration?

As reported previously by The Local, in late-June Spain’s Supreme Court raised the possibility of submitting to the CJEU “a request for a preliminary ruling on the interpretation of a number of provisions of the royal decree which, where applicable, could conflict with EU law”.

The possible referral up the legal chain, a move to test if Spain’s amnesty contradicted European migration law, came on the back of appeals lodged by regional authorities the Valencian Community and Aragón against certain aspects of the regularisation.

However, in its ruling on Wednesday, the Supreme Court also explained that the decision wasn’t final.

Judges stated that “with regard to the request for a preliminary ruling before the Court of Justice of the European Union, the Chamber considers that, having regard to the arguments put forward by the parties, and given that it has been decided not to suspend the proceedings in the present case, it is not appropriate to refer the matter at this stage of the proceedings”.

This suggests that the matter is not over and future referrals or appeals may be possible.

This is far from the first challenge to the controversial measure, however.

At the end of May, that same court rejected the Community of Madrid’s application for interim relief to suspend the regularisation after judges ruled that there was no evidence that Madrid’s public services could be overwhelmed by the migrant amnesty.