Listen! Malta, Cyprus, and Bulgaria must stop the selling of EU passports!

The EU Parliament is set to approve this week a report urging the EU to ban Golden Passport schemes by 2025 and immediately stop the issuance of visas and passports to rich Russians in exchange for investments. The move follows Russia’s invasion of Ukraine which has triggered global sanctions of unprecedented severity against Moscow, with targets including a number of powerful and wealthy Russians seen as close to President Vladimir Putin. These Golden Passport schemes are super-prone to corruption at the highest levels.

EU member states such as Malta and Cyprus have made huge profits with their Golden Passport schemes. The European Commission’s vice president overseeing financial policy, Valdis Dombrovskis, set up a successful residence investment program in Latvia when he was prime minister there at the beginning of the last decade.

Malta must not only act to stop Russian and Belarusian citizens from purchasing Maltese passports but must consider removing this activity completely, EU Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders told the EU Parliament’s plenary session in Strasbourg on 7 March 2022 during a discussion on bringing residence by investment schemes to a halt in EU member states.

EU lawmakers say in their report that ending such schemes could have a significant economic impact in some countries. They are therefore proposing the gradual phaseout of these Golden Passport schemes and tight rules for residence arrangements, including much more rigorous checks on applicants.

Companies developing and promoting these programs, such as Henley & Partners, would face strict requirements. Under the proposal, which is backed by a majority of legislators, revenues generated by these schemes would be taxed to fund the EU budget.

Early March 2022, the European Parliament discussed a draft legislative initiative report that sets out an array of measures to address problems linked to ‘citizenship and residence by investment schemes. MEPs will vote to stop golden passports by 2025 and for EU rules around golden visas.

EU Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders told lawmakers that the EU executive disagreed with the need for new rules on sales of citizenship because it was already pushing through legal proceedings to shut down existing golden passport schemes in Malta, Cyprus, and Bulgaria.

In October 2020, the EU Commission launched infringement procedures against Malta and Cyprus by issuing letters of formal notice regarding the Golden Passport schemes.

While Cyprus has stopped its scheme, Bulgaria will take a vote in parliament on the matter. Malta has reluctantly suspended the scheme for Russian and Belorussian applicants after the Western Alliance took action against Russia following its aggression on Ukraine. Malta’s authorities say that due diligence checks cannot be carried out effectively because of the war. Stop these Golden Passport schemes and you will stop a lot of corruption!