The “Gold Passport” regime of Malta violates the law, the rules of the EU Superior Court

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The European Court of Justice has ruled that Malta Viola’s “golden passport” regime in the EU law, in a milestone decision that forced the island to search the commercialization of EU citizenship.

“A Member State cannot grant its nationality – and in fact European citizenship – in exchange for predetermined payments or investments, as this essentially means that the acquisition of nationality is a mere commercial transaction,” said the court.

“By establishing and operating an investment regime of institutionalized citizenship,” Malta had not fulfilled his obligations “by virtue of EU treaties commissioned by EU citizenship, the court ruled.

Malta will now be forced to remove the citizenship regime for investment in its current form or risk a fine.

The Maltese government said in a statement that “the legal implications of this trial are being studied in detail, so that the regulatory framework on citizenship can be put in line with the principles described in the trial.”

The European Commission hosted the court ruling. The commission had referred Malt In the High Court of the Bloc in 2023 on his scheme, arguing that the sale of EU passports underwent “the essence of EU citizenship”, which is based on the mutual trust between the Member States.

The Maltese scheme has implications for the whole bloc, as people who acquire Citizens Maltese enjoy the right to live and work anywhere in the blog and vote Mulch Elections.

Cyprus and Bulgaria have suppressed their pressure -paid citizenship schemes in Brussels, which has argued that these schemes are risks of corruption, money laundering and tax evasion.

In its ruling, the court said that citizenship was “one of the main specific expressions of solidarity that forms the very basis of the integration process … which is an integral part of the identity of the European Union”.

“A Member State manifestly ignores the requirement of such a special relationship of solidarity and good faith … when it establishes and implements a naturalization scheme based on a transactional procedure,” he said.

Malta reviewed its scheme in 2020 and the Maltese government says it has strengthened the diligence requirements due to applicants. He also banned Russian and Belarusian nationals in 2022.

People who buy a Maltese passport must make a unique investment of at least € 600,000, either purchase or rent a property, give € 10,000 to charity and live in the country for three years. The residence requirement can be reduced to a single year for people investing € 750,000.

But the court stated that, even with an improvement in due diligence, the regime “is equivalent to the commercialization of the Maltese nationality, after a transactional procedure.”

An analysis of the financial time revealed that 16 people who received maltet passports were politically exposed people, or later were subjected to sanctions or convicted of crimes.

Among the people identified by the FT were some who spent only several days in Malta during the year when they had to be legally resided there before their naturalization.

“It cannot be considered that the Republic of Malta considered that the real residence of this territory was an essential criterion for the granting of the nationality of this Member State in this regime,” said the court.

The ruling could increase the pressure on Malta to revoke passports issued in the regime, which would be a long and complicated process.

“ What is really interesting is whether other states inside or outside the EU could question the citizens of people who had Maltese passports or Cypriot, as citizens were never valid, ” said Simon Cox, a lawyer specializing in EU immigration law, in reference to Maltese Cypriot programs and now that are now being reached.

COX said that although Malta was unlikely to adopt a general policy of revoking all these citizens, “it could” increase the possibility of revoking (individual passports) to prevent political conflict with other states. “

According to the latest government report, Malta had approved more than 5,300 citizenship applications at the end of 2023.

In at least one case, a passport, which had been granted to the Russian millionaire Pavel Melnikov, was later revoked. Melnikov received nationality in 2015 and was convicted of tax and accounting fraud in Finland in February this year. He called against the sentence and said he would challenge the revocation of his Maltese passport.

“Today’s trial confirms that Member States cannot mercantilize EU citizenship and operate recklessly gold passport programs,” said Maíra Martini, CEO of Transparency International. “Innume cases have shown how these schemes have given a safe shelter for corrupting actors around the world and others suspected of the EU.”

Daniel Freund, a green member of the European Parliament, also hosted the sentence. “European passports are not for sale. Criminals, autocrats and terrorists should not buy a ticket in the EU,” Freund said. “It’s time to end gold passports across Europe. It is a riot that some Russians can use them to avoid EU sanctions.”