28.03.2022
The European Commission urged EU governments on Monday to end national programs to sell citizenship to investors, also known as golden passport schemes, and urged them to suspend the sale of visas to Russians and Belarusians.
The move follows a new push by the European Parliament to curtail and regulate the multibillion-dollar citizenship and visa industry, which the EU has long considered a security threat.
It comes amid fears that people affected by European Union sanctions over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine could be holders of EU golden visas or passports.
“Some citizens of Russia or Belarus who are under sanctions or who substantially support the war in Ukraine may have obtained EU citizenship or privileged access to the EU, including for free movement within the Schengen area, under these schemes,” the European Commission said. Monday.
Since the beginning of the Russian aggression, which Moscow calls a special operation, the EU has blacklisted about 700 high-ranking politicians, businessmen and military officials accused of supporting the Kremlin.
The Commission called for an immediate end to existing national passport sales programs. At present, only Malta, Cyprus and Bulgaria have such schemes, and they have all pledged to put an end to them. The Cypriot Parliament has just voted to end its program.
Brussels also said that governments should check whether people subject to sanctions have a golden passport or a visa issued to them.The European Commission said it did not know if the beneficiaries of the program included people subject to sanctions. The representative declined to clarify whether he asked the EU countries to provide lists of people who bought visas or passports.
The commission said it was up to countries to decide whether to revoke these passports and revoke their residence permits immediately.
Several EU countries use golden visa schemes and have golden passport programs.
The commission refrained from calling for an end to golden visa programs but called for strict scrutiny and asked EU governments to suspend issuing residence permits to Russians and Belarusians.
