The investment migratory industry is now prohibited in the European Union's so -called gold passport programs that were useful for wealthy foreigners, the highest court of the block decided on Tuesday in the landmark decision. The European Union Court (CJEU) decides Years of legal challengeA small island nation between the European Commission, Malta, between Sicily and the North Africa, offered one of the most popular golden passes in the world. Citizenship and investment schemes, which are popular among countries such as Russia and China among wealthy citizens, offer the EU Citizenship in the back door without bustling of the usual immigration process.
In his decision, Cjeu found that Malta could not offer a golden passage program because it “means the national status of the Member State and the expandable marketing of the marketing of trade union citizenship”, and thus it is not compatible with the nature of EU citizenship. If buyers have Malta nationality, they technically have EU citizenship and can work, travel and live freely among 27 Member States.
Malta triggered this scheme as a way to attract the capital of rich foreigners: at least € 600,000, rich people can buy an accelerated process to get a Maltese passport. Since its creation in 2015, he has generated over € 1.4 billion In the state's revenue, its government claims. Other countries around the world have adopted citizenship and investment schemes, although Malta is the last to offer it in Europe.
Bulgaria and Cyprus once offered their version of golden passport programs, but walked back. Many other European countries offer residency with investment programs that are not affected by Tuesday's decisions.
As the nationality of investment programs grew popularity, they were found to give bad actors more easily access to countries where they can participate in illegal activities money launderingTo. In just a few weeks, the Malta program has drawn attention in Europe By promising sanctioned persons to avoid travel prohibitions.
“A Member State does not receive its nationality – and also European citizenship – for a given payment or investment as it means essentially acquisition
Citizenship is just a business deal, “the court ruled.
Malta now has to change its law and to repeal the provision that promises its sale of citizenship, said the EAA Rostomavil campaign, which is the corrupt cash flow management in Transparency International, an anti -corruption organization that does not support investment schemes.
The Maltese government announced that it would meet the order and that those who previously achieved citizenship would not affect it.
“As always, the Malta government respects the decisions of the courts,” the government said in a statement, in accordance Maltese timesTo. “At that point, the legal consequences of this judgment are examined in detail, so that the regulatory framework of the citizenship can then be answered with the principles described in the judgment.”
Henley & Partners, the worldwide residence and nationality of the investment counseling company, calls the court a politically motivated court and says that the portrayal of citizenship with investments as marketing is “basically defective”. The company noted that EU countries gave 1.1 million people in 2023, some of whom became a status through “distant ancestral community”, while others had “high -risk” countries such as Syria.
“A couple of hundred citizenship, which Malta gave each year under the most stringent security and background check, is barely justified by the non -factual, disturbance narrative and reflected [court]The decision, “the company said in a statement.
The news is when President Donald Trump promotes a so-called gold card in the US for $ 5 million, which the president has proposed to allow wealthy foreigners to obtain US residency and road to citizenship.
Golden visa programs are still allowed
Although citizenship is no longer for sale, this decision does not prohibit the investment of golden visa programs or residency, Rosteumvili said. Those programs introduced by many countries other than citizenship schemes still exist throughout the EU and are popular with people from around the world, including the US
Most of the programs were developed to bring capital to countries that are in trouble during the recent European debt crisis and many allowed foreigners to buy a country's home for permanent residency. This facilitated the movement of buyers throughout the block and travel more freely and for longer duration. After the cozy-19 pandemic arose, these programs became particularly popular, especially among rich Americans and pensioners.
But the tide has even begun to turn against these residency programs. Now, many countries, including Ireland, Portugal and Spain, have begun to return their golden visa programs for their own worries about their own worrieshousing prices resulting from the flood of investor's money.
This story was originally reflected on Fortune.com
