After Brussels filed a legal problem against Malta, the bloc’s highest judge ruled on Tuesday that “golden card” plans for deeply ingested foreigners are in violation of EU law.
The EU’s Court of Justice ruled that Malta had violated EU rules, saying that” the merger of Union membership may effect from a business transaction.
In 2022, Brussels had taken Malta to the best court because of the program, which allows non-Europeans to efficiently purchase Maltese, and thus EU, membership, through defined payment or purchases.
Malta has comply with the decision’s terms or face severe charges. The court argued that a member state don’t grant its nationality, and truly, European citizenship, in exchange for set payments or investments, which basically amounts to a transaction that treats nationality as a commodity.
Although the prosecutor argued that each member state had the authority to choose ethnicity, freedom that had to be “executed in accordance with EU law.” The Maltese plan “violates the principle of genuine cooperation and undermines the common trust between member states regarding the grant of their nationality,” the court said.
Rich Russians and Chinese people had used the program to get Malta’s EU membership. Similar techniques were used in Bulgaria and Cyprus, but they were after abandoned.
Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, when Europe cracked down on Kremlin-linked people, Malta turned down Russian and Belarusian programs for “golden documents.”
