Investor residence and citizen schemes, allowing non-EU citizens to effectively buy their EU residence or residence by investing in a country, usually in real estate, have been criticised by the European Union for a while now. However, the European Court of Justice (CJEU) suggests that every state can independently determine who is entitled to be one of their nationals.
Malta is one of the few remaining EU Member States still offering such a scheme. The Netherlands stopped its program this year, while Spain announced in April it would follow suit. Elsewhere, Portugal has elimitated the real estate option from the scheme, while Greece has raised its price.
In Malta, in exchange for investing at least €690,000 to the national development fund, people from all over the world can gain Maltese, and thus EU, citizenship. The European Commission launched infringement procedures against Cyprus and Malta in 2020 about their golden passports schemes.
“European values are not for sale. We consider that the sale of citizenship through ‘golden passports’ is illegal under EU law and poses serious risks to our security. It opens the door to corruption, money laundering and tax avoidance”, Didier Reynders, Commissioner for Justice and Consumers, stated at the time.
The Ukraine-Russia war put the issue under additional pressure, as the Commission suggested some Russian or Belarusian nationals who are subject to sanctions or are significantly supporting the war in Ukraine might have acquired EU citizenship or privileged access to the EU.
“The right to travel freely within the Schengen area is among our greatest assets. We need strong checks to make sure this right is not abused. Golden residence permits issued to Russians and Belarusians under EU sanctions should be revoked”, said Ylva Johansson, EU Commissioner for Home Affairs.
The CJEU Advocate General, Anthony Collins, has now released his opinion in a non-binding report: “Member States have decided that it is for each of them alone to determine who is entitled to be one of their nationals and, as a consequence, who is an EU citizen. There is no logical basis for the contention that because Member States are obliged to recognise nationality granted by other Member States, their nationality laws must contain any particular rule,” said a non-binding report by Advocate General Anthony Collins on Friday, October 4th.
Even though the judges at the Court of Justice still have to rule about the matter and aren’t obliged to follow the Advocate General’s opinion, in reality, they often do. In that case, this could set precedent for other countries to keep and potentially reinstate their own investment schemes.
