Malta’s golden passport scheme rejected by EU top court

Malta’s arguable aureate passport scheme, allowing foreigners to acquisition EU citizenship successful speech for investing upwards of €690,000, was ruled unlawful by the EU’s apical tribunal connected Tuesday.  

The Commission took ineligible enactment years ago, arguing that the aureate passport strategy breached Malta’s work to cooperate sincerely. It offered radical the accidental to summation citizenship of Malta, and hence the close to enactment crossed the EU, adjacent if they didn’t person household ties oregon a location there.

The EU Court of Justice agreed with the Commission, uncovering that specified a strategy “amounts to the commercialisation of the granting of the presumption of nationalist of a subordinate authorities and, by extension, Union citizenship, which is incompatible with the conception of that cardinal presumption that stems from the EU Treaties”.

Payments oregon investments underpinned the Maltese scheme, the tribunal held, adding that “it cannot beryllium considered that existent residence connected that territory was regarded by the Republic of Malta arsenic constituting an indispensable criterion for the assistance of the nationality of that subordinate authorities nether that scheme”.

The tribunal declared that by establishing and operating its aureate passport strategy Malta failed to fulfil its obligations nether the EU treaties and ordered Malta to wage the costs of the case.

The determination went against the atom of a non-binding study by Advocate General Anthony Collins past October which brushed speech European Commission concerns that the strategy undermined the EU’s integrity.  

"Member States person decided that it is for each of them unsocial to find who is entitled to beryllium 1 of their nationals and, arsenic a consequence, who is an EU citizen,” Collins’ sentiment had suggested.  

Judges astatine the Court of Justice aren’t obliged to travel Advocate General opinions, though successful the bulk of cases they do. 

Malta's was the past remaining aureate passport strategy wrong the bloc, aft Cyprus scrapped its process successful 2020, and Bulgaria successful 2022. Other countries connection “golden visas”, a narrower strategy that offers residence permits to those consenting to pay, though those are besides nether the spotlight.  

Portugal slimmed down its aureate visa strategy successful 2023, removing a existent property concern information successful a bid to chopped spot speculation. The Netherlands followed suit, ending its aureate visa strategy successful January 2024, and Spain has also promised to abolish aureate visas for those who put successful existent estate. 

The schemes person raised important information and money-laundering concerns – not slightest since the penetration of Ukraine successful 2022, arsenic acquiring an EU passport oregon residence paper whitethorn fto affluent Russians evade sanctions.  

In 2022, MEPs called for tighter rules connected aureate visas and a prohibition connected citizenship by investment, saying it was “objectionable from an ethical, ineligible and economical constituent of view”.

This communicative volition beryllium updated with reactions from Malta.