Malta's golden passport scheme ruled illegal by European court

Times

29-04-2025

Malta's golden passport scheme violates European Union law by reducing the status of nationality and citizenship to a 'mere commercial transaction', according to a binding ruling by the bloc's court in Luxembourg.
Malta's 'investor citizenship scheme' effectively sells passports, along with EU residency and travel rights, at the price of €600,000 after 36 months of residency or €750,000 after residing in the country for a year.
The European Court of Justice ruled that Malta's scheme 'amounts to the commercialisation of the grant of nationality and, by extension, of union citizenship'.
The court said in a statement: 'Malta has infringed EU law. A member state 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.'
Malta, the EU's smallest member state, introduced its golden passport scheme in 2013 and has allowed 96 individuals to buy citizenship, including at least seven Russian oligarchs on western sanctions blacklists.
The scheme has gone from generating €1 million for Malta in 2017 to a projected €25 million after a barrage of sanctions against Russia since President Putin's invasion of Ukraine.
The EU ruling sets a precedent for countries such as Austria, Cyprus, Greece, Hungary, Ireland and Portugal that offer 'golden visas' in return for investment.
Stepping into a sensitive area for national sovereignty, the EU court has decided that selling passports breaches a fundamental relationship between a state and nation, as well as undermining trust between European countries.
'Such a practice does not make it possible to establish the necessary bond of solidarity and good faith between a member state and its citizens, or to ensure mutual trust between the member states and thus constitutes a breach of the principle of sincere co-operation,' the court said.
It is a landmark decision because the court's own legal adviser said last October that 'EU law does not define, much less require, the existence of' genuine bonds or links to a country 'in order to acquire or to retain nationality'.
Joseph Muscat, the former Maltese prime minister who introduced the scheme, accused the EU judges of taking a 'political decision' that worked against Malta's national interests.