Malta’s ‘golden passports’ ruled illegal by EU court, as Trump woos wealthy investors to US

The SCMP reports that ‘an EU nation “cannot grant its nationality – and indeed European citizenship – in exchange for predetermined payments or investments, as this essentially amounts to rendering the acquisition of nationality a mere commercial transaction,” the Luxembourg-based EU court said.’

Malta’s citizenship schemes for wealthy investors has been declared illegal by EU’s top court.

Malta “is one of a handful of European countries that have over recent years offered golden visas and passports, which gained popularity during the European debt crisis when nations started selling residency to attract foreign investment.

Portugal, Ireland, Greece, Hungary had in recent years also launched such programmes for the wealthy to get their hands on much-prized EU freedom of movement. But the offerings caused uproar from the European Commission – the bloc’s executive arm – which claimed cash-for-citizenship policies expose the EU to money laundering and security risks.”

Actually, this EU jugement is a substantial limitation to a nation’s sovereignty: citizenship is the core of a nation’s sovereignty. If a nation cannot decide by who and how its citizenship can be acquired, such nation loses completely its existence as nation.  It must be the sovereign decision of each nation to rule on its own citizenship.

And this EU ruling is a blow to EU countries who are in need of foreign investments and recently find themselves in competition with Trump’s Golden Visa for the US, not a citizenship but a full US residency for USD 5 million.

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