European Court slaps down Golden Visa schemes

In a remarkably blunt and clear judgment, the European Court of Justice today has called out the Maltese investor citizenship scheme, otherwise known as ‘golden passport’ scheme, for being incompatible with the basic concept of EU citizenship and the mutual trust between governments that requires.

The Renew Europe group has long demanded an EU ban of the commercialisation of citizenship, calling the current practice ‘ethically, legally and economically objectionable’ and pointing out the obvious security risks attached.

The ECJ decision leaves the Maltese government no choice but to immediately scrap its problematic golden passport scheme. The decision also underlines that EU-wide rules on golden visas and passports are needed to harmonise standards and strengthen the fight against money laundering, corruption and tax evasion. The European Commission should finally come forward with concrete proposals to counter the practice across the EU, as well as in third countries with visa-free access to the EU. This should include stringent EU-wide rules that generate vigorous background checks on all applicants, requirements for minimum physical residence, an EU-level tax on the revenues Member States generate with the schemes and stricter regulation for the intermediaries of these schemes.

MEP Fabienne Keller (Renaissance/France) reacts:

“EU citizenship is not for sale! With our Group it has long been a priority to fight against those scandalous investment schemes. It’s not only a threat to our internal security, but also unjust to people going through the official channels to get their EU citizenship.”

MEP Raquel García Hermida-van der Walle (D66/Netherlands) adds:

“For years, corrupt oligarchs and other shady figures have had a loophole into the European Union. Finally the Court has shut the door on them. Another win in our ongoing fight against corruption.”