Buying EU citizenship as a foreigner with investments: According to the will of the EU Parliament, this controversial practice should be banned in the future. In an own-initiative report, which MEPs approved on Wednesday with a large majority, they called for an end to the “golden passports”. According to the text, the assignment of these entails serious security risks for the citizens of the Union – for example in the case of money laundering and corruption.
According to the EU Parliament, three EU member states issue such purchasable citizenships: Malta, Cyprus and Bulgaria, with Cyprus no longer accepting new applications and Bulgaria aiming to end the practice. In view of the Russian attack on Ukraine, Malta recently announced that it would no longer issue “golden passports” to Russians and Belarusians.
The European Commission should also intervene and create uniform rules for the so-called golden visas – i.e. the granting of residence rights in return for investments – the MEPs demand in their text. According to the will of the parliamentarians, no more visas or passports should be issued to Russian candidates.
According to the EU Parliament, twelve member states issue “golden visas”, including the Netherlands, Spain, Italy and Portugal. It is estimated that between 2011 and 2019 more than 132,000 people obtained residence permits or citizenship in EU member states through such purchasable visas or “golden passports”, in exchange for at least 21.4 billion euros in investments.
It is a “tempting source of income,” especially for smaller countries, said Liberal MEP Sophia in ‘t Veld. But that would allow “dubious characters” into the EU. Applicants for “golden visas” and their families would have to be checked strictly – just like the origin of their wealth, says the report.
Source: Nachrichten
