{"id":160922,"date":"2025-04-29T23:05:52","date_gmt":"2025-04-29T22:05:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/uncategorized\/eu-court-bans-maltas-golden-passports-citizenship"},"modified":"2025-04-30T19:58:29","modified_gmt":"2025-04-30T18:58:29","slug":"eu-court-bans-maltas-golden-passports-citizenship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/eu-court-bans-maltas-golden-passports-citizenship","title":{"rendered":"EU court bans Malta\u2019s golden passports citizenship"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. <\/strong><\/span>The European Union High Court on Tuesday ordered the Republic of Malta to end its \u201cgolden passports\u201d scheme, which allows wealthy individuals to purchase citizenship.<\/p>\n<p>The Grand Chamber delivered its decision in response to an application filed by the European Commission in 2020, which sought a declaration that Malta\u2019s institutionalised citizenship-by-investment programme was unlawful.<\/p>\n<p>In its ruling, the court held that the cash-for-citizenship scheme amounted to \u201ctransactional naturalisation\u201d, which contravened the principle of sincere cooperation between EU member states.<\/p>\n<p>While affirming that states possess the right to set conditions for the acquisition of nationality, the court emphasised that such powers must not undermine the essence, value, and integrity of EU citizenship \u201cin order to preserve the mutual trust which underpins that status.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The judgment concluded that Malta had failed to fulfil its obligations under Article 20 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) and Article 4(3) of the Treaty on European Union (TEU) by establishing a transactional naturalisation process in exchange for fixed payments or investments.<\/p>\n<p>The policy, it stated, amounted to \u201cthe commercialisation\u201d of the granting of nationality of a member state and, by extension, EU citizenship.<\/p>\n<p>Transparency International\u2019s Chief Executive Officer, Mai\u0301ra Martini, said the ruling would prevent not only Malta but also other member states from selling EU citizenship.<\/p>\n<p>Martini remarked that numerous cases had shown how the schemes \u201cgranted safe haven to corrupt actors from around the world and other suspicious individuals in the EU.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The island nation in Southern Europe said it was reviewing the legal implications of the verdict and would revise its citizenship regulations in accordance with the principles outlined in the ruling.<\/p>\n<p>In its statement, Malta affirmed that passports already granted under the scheme \u201cremain valid\u201d, adding that the programme had generated \u20ac1.4 billion, which had been spent on \u201cbeneficial projects and investments.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Malta\u2019s scheme had offered successful applicants the right to reside, study, and work in EU countries, and to extend EU citizenship to family members, including dependent and unmarried children under the age of 29, and parents over 55.<\/p>\n<p>Citizenship could be acquired by paying \u20ac600,000 and establishing residency for three years, or by paying \u20ac750,000 for a one-year residency option.<\/p>\n<p>Applicants could also purchase a house worth \u20ac700,000 or pay an annual rent of \u20ac16,000 for at least five years. Additionally, beneficiaries were required to donate a minimum of \u20ac10,000 to a philanthropic cause.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Nigeria<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. The European Union High Court on Tuesday ordered the Republic of Malta to end its \u201cgolden passports\u201d scheme, which allows wealthy individuals to purchase citizenship. The Grand Chamber delivered its decision in response to an application filed by the European Commission in 2020, which sought a declaration that Malta\u2019s institutionalised citizenship-by-investment programme [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":160921,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,30],"tags":[360,14654,254],"class_list":["post-160922","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-community","tag-eu","tag-malta","tag-nigeria"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>EU court bans Malta\u2019s golden passports citizenship - Nigeria<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The European Union High Court on Tuesday ordered the Republic of Malta to end its \u201cgolden passports\u201d scheme, which allow ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/eu-court-bans-maltas-golden-passports-citizenship\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"EU court bans Malta\u2019s golden passports citizenship\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The European Union High Court on Tuesday ordered the Republic of Malta to end its \u201cgolden passports\u201d scheme, which allow ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/eu-court-bans-maltas-golden-passports-citizenship\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nigeria\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-04-29T22:05:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-04-30T18:58:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2025\/04\/sm_1745956714.519761.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"675\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/eu-court-bans-maltas-golden-passports-citizenship#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/eu-court-bans-maltas-golden-passports-citizenship\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"EU court bans Malta\u2019s golden passports citizenship\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-04-29T22:05:52+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-04-30T18:58:29+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/eu-court-bans-maltas-golden-passports-citizenship\"},\"wordCount\":412,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/eu-court-bans-maltas-golden-passports-citizenship#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2025\/04\/sm_1745956714.519761.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"EU\",\"Malta\",\"Nigeria\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"Community\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/eu-court-bans-maltas-golden-passports-citizenship#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/eu-court-bans-maltas-golden-passports-citizenship\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/eu-court-bans-maltas-golden-passports-citizenship\",\"name\":\"EU court bans Malta\u2019s golden passports citizenship - 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