{"id":123446,"date":"2025-04-30T15:53:45","date_gmt":"2025-04-30T12:53:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shiawaves.com\/english\/?p=123446"},"modified":"2025-04-30T15:53:50","modified_gmt":"2025-04-30T12:53:50","slug":"eu-court-rules-maltas-golden-passport-scheme-illegal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shiawaves.com\/english\/news\/123446-eu-court-rules-maltas-golden-passport-scheme-illegal\/","title":{"rendered":"EU court rules Malta\u2019s golden passport scheme illegal"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The European Court of Justice has ruled Malta\u2019s citizenship-by-investment scheme, commonly known as the \u201cgolden passport\u201d programme, violates EU law. The court found the scheme, which granted Maltese \u2014 and thereby EU \u2014 citizenship to individuals in exchange for significant financial contributions, amounted to a commercialisation of EU nationality and undermined mutual trust among member states.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The ruling followed legal action launched by the European Commission in 2020. The Commission argued that the scheme posed risks related to money laundering, corruption, and security, citing investigative findings that some applicants spent minimal time in Malta and left properties unoccupied.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While Cyprus shut down its similar programme, Malta had defended its right to grant citizenship. In response to the judgment, Malta said it would review its regulatory framework. The European Commission welcomed the ruling, stating that EU citizenship should not be for sale and called for all such schemes to be abolished.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The European Court of Justice has ruled Malta\u2019s citizenship-by-investment scheme, commonly known as the \u201cgolden passport\u201d programme, violates EU law. The court found the scheme, which granted Maltese \u2014 and thereby EU \u2014 citizenship to individuals in exchange for significant financial contributions, amounted to a commercialisation of EU nationality and undermined mutual trust among member &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":123447,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"yes","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_108372464460192_245495985553329":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[15,31],"tags":[13978],"class_list":["post-123446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-europe","category-news","tag-maltas-golden-passport"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>EU court rules Malta\u2019s golden passport scheme illegal - Shia Waves<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/shiawaves.com\/english\/news\/123446-eu-court-rules-maltas-golden-passport-scheme-illegal\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"EU court rules Malta\u2019s golden passport scheme illegal - Shia Waves\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The European Court of Justice has ruled Malta\u2019s citizenship-by-investment scheme, commonly known as the \u201cgolden passport\u201d programme, violates EU law. The court found the scheme, which granted Maltese \u2014 and thereby EU \u2014 citizenship to individuals in exchange for significant financial contributions, amounted to a commercialisation of EU nationality and undermined mutual trust among member &hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/shiawaves.com\/english\/news\/123446-eu-court-rules-maltas-golden-passport-scheme-illegal\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Shia Waves\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-04-30T12:53:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-04-30T12:53:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/shiawaves.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2025\/04\/3700.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"960\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"576\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"hassanhadihaddad\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"hassanhadihaddad\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/shiawaves.com\/english\/news\/123446-eu-court-rules-maltas-golden-passport-scheme-illegal\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/shiawaves.com\/english\/news\/123446-eu-court-rules-maltas-golden-passport-scheme-illegal\/\",\"name\":\"EU court rules Malta\u2019s golden passport scheme illegal - 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