End of the line for EU golden passports

Golden passport and visa of EU.

This week, the EU’s highest court handed down a landmark ruling that slams the door shut on one of the bloc’s most brazen corruption loopholes: citizenship-for-sale schemes. Malta’s golden passport programme – offering EU citizenship in exchange for investment – has now been declared incompatible with EU law. This will bring an end to the last programme of its kind in the bloc. 

This is a hard-fought victory for civil society and all those who spent years exposing the dangers behind these reckless schemes.  

There is now broad consensus that investment migration schemes pose serious risks of financial crime. But when Transparency International first began looking into the issue, the prevailing narrative was that investment migration programmes could be an economic silver bullet. The EU wasn’t considering the risks. We knew we had to step in, so we joined forces with partners to document the problem and drive an effort to address it.  

Things began to move in 2018. Investigations by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project – our partners through the Global Anti-Corruption Consortium – uncovered abuses. Working alongside Global Witness and Transparency International’s EU-wide network, we laid bare the risks of corruption and money laundering, and ramped up pressure on the EU to respond.  

Our case was strong: these schemes offered the world’s corrupt a safe haven – not just for themselves, but also their money. All the while, member states running these programmes exposed the entire EU to unacceptable risks.  

The EU could no longer look away. The European Commission and the European Parliament conducted their own evaluations, which echoed Transparency International’s concerns. Two countries that sold golden passport programmes – Cyprus and Bulgaria – eventually scrapped their citizenship schemes under pressure, but Malta held out. As a result, in 2022, the Commission decided to refer Malta to the EU Court of Justice (CJEU). Even then, the battle was far from won. Malta’s legal defence was bolstered last year when the Advocate General issued a non-binding opinion fully in its favour. We responded and worked with an independent legal expert, who developed arguments showing a path for EU intervention. 

On Tuesday, the Court delivered its verdict. It could not be clearer: commercialisation of EU citizenship violates EU law. The ruling shuts one of the most dangerous backdoors into the EU – one that has allowed corrupt and criminal actors to sidestep scrutiny.  

This ruling also comes at a moment of reckoning in Malta. Last week, the trial of two of those accused of murdering investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia in 2017 commenced. Daphne’s fearless reporting helped expose the corruption at the heart of Malta’s golden passport scheme before anyone was paying attention. We’re holding our breath, hoping that that the trial will lead to successful convictions and mark a step forward on the long road to full justice for Daphne’s brutal assassination.  

In many ways, this week’s EU court decision stands as a tribute to Daphne’s legacy – and to the tireless efforts of her family’s foundation, the Daphne Caruana Galizia Foundation, which has kept the pressure on and carried her work forward. – Transparency International