Maltese citizenship for investments: the violation of the Union guidelines | EUROtoday

Listen to the audio model of the article

Following a modification of the Maltese citizenship regulation in July 2020, Malta adopted a laws 1 which established the strategies of buying the “Maltese citizenship by naturalization by reason of Exceptional services through direct investments»(Citizenship program through investment of 2020)

As part of this regime, foreign investors could ask to be naturalized if they met a certain number of requirements, mainly of a financial nature.

The Commission believes that this regime, which he granted naturalization in the face of predetermined payments or investmentsto people without an effective constraint with Malta, represents a violation of the rules relating to the citizenship of the Union and the principle of loyal cooperation.

It therefore filed an appeal against this Member State before the Court of Justice. The Court declares that, having introduced and implemented the citizenship program through the investment of 2020, which is assimilable to a marketing of the granting of the citizenship of a Member State as well as, by extension, of the status of citizen of the Union, Malta has violated the law law.