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EU ELECTION RESULTS
Elections for MEP were held across the region on May 26 that saw record high turnouts for many countries, but in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) the incumbent parties also took a drubbing. Read the round up from our region here:
Voters prepare
to punish their ruling parties in European Parlia- ment elections →
Lithuanians pick new president in continuation vote →
Viktor Orban’s Fidesz party sweeps to victory at European Parliament election →
Poland’s PiS cruises to victory in European election →
Double blow for Romania’s ruling PSD in justice referendum, European Parliament election →
Czechia sends representatives of populist ANO, neo-fascist SPD and Communists to European Parliament →
lack of transparency in how the schemes are operated and a lack of cooperation among member states.
“People obtaining an EU nationality must have a genuine connection to
the member state concerned. We want more transparency on how nationality is granted and more cooperation between member states. There should be no weak link in the EU, where people could shop around for the most lenient scheme,” said European Commissioner for Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality Vera Jourova on the publication of the report.
The EC report singles out the investor citizenship schemes in Bulgaria, Cyprus and Malta, pointing out that: “there
is no obligation of physical residence for the individual, nor a requirement
of other genuine connections with the country before obtaining citizenship ... These schemes are of common EU inter- est since every person that acquires the nationality of a member state will simul- taneously acquire union citizenship.”
Meanwhile, at a session on March 26, MEPs called for schemes to market citizenship and residency permits to wealthy foreigners to be phased out.
Some member states have already taken steps to end such schemes. In 2017, Hungary scrapped its citizenship pro- gramme that was launched back in 2013. It initially granted residence permits to foreigners who purchased Hungarian government bonds for €250,000, later raising the sum to €300,000. Controver- sially, businessmen close to the govern- ment profited from the programme as selected intermediaries were allowed
to sell the bonds, most of them operat- ing offshore. In total, the programme allowed the long-term stay of 19,855 non- EU citizens – despite the government’s political rhetoric against migration – and a further 9,000 residence permits were issued to foreigners after the scheme was suspended, it was revealed in January.
More recently, the very day before the European Commission issued its report, Bulgaria’s justice ministry said it plans to draft amendments to stop giving citizenship in exchange for investment.
The current legislation allows people who invest at least €500,000 in one year and double this amount in the second year to become Bulgarian citizenships.
At the same time, Bulgaria’s Anti-Corrup- tion Fund (ACF) NGO reported that Sofia had revoked the citizenship of Russian mil- lionaire Sergei Adonyev over a 20-year-old conviction for fraud and money launder- ing in the US. Adonyev had hidden the conviction from the Bulgarian authorities for more than a decade.
Reforms are also underway in Cyprus and Malta, but so far the changes have been “piecemeal,” Golden Witness senior campaigner Naomi Hirst tells
bne IntelliNews. “There are legal grounds to tighten this up on an EU-wide basis.
I don’t think the European Commission has appetite for this but they said in the report they do have the appetite
to use the powers they have so far
to make sure member states are not abusing the common good of freedom of movement.”
The European Commission has set up
a working group tasked with coming up with a series of recommendations by the end of the year. “It’s important that the working group not only comes up with recommendations but also galvanises member states to implement them as soon as possible,” says Hirst. “It can’t just be a talking shop. Actions have to take place as a result of these meetings.”
But while EU members are taking steps to end or phase out investment for citizenship programmes, the opposite
is happening in some of the countries seen as potential future members. In the last few months both Moldova and Montenegro have launched new schemes.
Montenegro’s government said in January it would launch a programme offering citizenship to up to 2,000 foreigners in return for investment over the next three years, hoping to boost its economic growth. The measure is part of ongoing government efforts to attract foreign direct investment and expand the economy in the country of just 620,000 people. “The programme aims to further improve Montenegro’s
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