The “Golden Passport” regimes for foreign investors with deep pocket violent the highest courtyard of the block on Tuesday, after a legal challenge against Malta by Brussels.
“The acquisition of union citizenship cannot result from a commercial transaction,” said the EU Court of Justice, judging that Malta had violated the law of the EU.
Brussels had taken Malta before the Superior Court in 2022 during the program, which allows non -Europeans to effectively buy Maltese – and therefore the EU – by defined payments or investments.
Tuesday's decision is binding and Malta must comply or risk heavy fines.
“A Member State cannot grant its nationality – and even European citizenship – in exchange for predetermined payments or investments, as this essentially constitutes a rendering of the acquisition of nationality a simple commercial transaction,” said the court.
Although the court stressed that each Member State has the right alone to decide on nationality, it was a freedom that was to be “exercised in accordance with the law of the EU”.
The Maltese regime “undermines the principle of sincere cooperation and endangers mutual trust between the Member States concerning the granting of their nationality,” said the court.
The rich Russians and Chinese had used the program to obtain citizenship from the EU of Malta.
There had been similar programs in Cyprus and Bulgaria, but these countries dropped them.
Malta excluded the Russian and Belarusian requests from “gold passports” after the invasion of Ukraine by Russia in 2022, when Europe repressed the individuals linked to the Kremlin.
This story was initially presented on Fortune.com
