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Russian Duma considers harsh punishments for dual citizenship

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While Russian citizenship law allows for dual citizenship, those who hold another nationality cannot stand for public offices or obtain classified information. Now three different bills were introduced in the Russian Parliament (the State Duma), providing sanctions for those who ‘conceal’ their foreign citizenship or fail to report that they have received such on time.

This would confound further the position of the residents of Crimea. Currently Russia is speedily issuing passports to them, and the head of the Federal Migration Service stated that their Ukrainian passports remain valid. But in the long run it may become tricky if they retain their Ukrainian citizenship and run for office. to make the situation even more complicated, the Ukrainian law prescribes administrative sanctions for dual citizenship too.

Read more about the Russian bills in The Moscow Times and Pravda.ru (in English).

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Bremen Court strikes down franchise proposals for third country nationals and EU residents.

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By Luicy Pedroza,  EUDO Citizenship expert 

The Bremen State Court (Bremer Staatsgerichtshof) has decided on 24th March 2014 that a bill (Gesetz zur Ausweitung des Wahlrechts) that would have extended voting rights to foreign residents (at Bremen state-level elections for EU-citizens, and at local council elections for “third-country nationals”) is incompatible with the Bremen Constitution. This judicial process had been called for by the Bremen parliament as a “preventive norm control”, after the bill’s successful passing in a first voting in the plenary. In the justification for this judgment the Court traced the definition of “the people” in the Bremen Constitution to the definition of the people (Staatsvolk) in the federal Constitution (Grundgesetz) which links it to those who possess German nationality. According to the Court, the German federal states (Länder) may not apply different definitions or demarcations of the electing people, so legislators at this level have no room to redefine it. The Court concluded that the reasons that it had exposed back in 1991 to justify its decision on the unconstitutionality of extensions of voting rights to resident migrants in Bremen still apply. 

Had the Bremen State Court confirmed the constitutionality of the law proposal to enfranchise third-country nationals who are residents for over five years in Bremen at the communal level and to give voting rights to EU-citizens at the Land level, the Bremen parliament would still have had to vote again on the bill for it to become law. Since the proposal was made by the two parties which hold the majority in the Bremen parliament –the Greens and the SPD – that second step was almost assured. The judgment of the Court has now halted the legislative process.

The judgment of the Staatsgerichthof gathered the support of all judges except for one, judge Ute Sacksofsky, who considered that the proposal was compatible with the Constitution. This judgment follows several attempts made over the last two decades to extend voting rights to third-country nationals at all levels in Germany that attempted to reinterpret the ruling of unconstitutionality that are traced back to the Federal Constitutional Court’s decision in 1990. Bremen had been involved in these efforts before any other state in Germany and to a deeper level due of its city-state structure and its unique local councils (Beiräte), which mix characteristics of self-government and self-administration.

Read the press release of the Court.

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The power to revoke British citizenship on security grounds contested in the House of Lords

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A naturalised British citizen visiting relatives in Afghanistan found himself unable to return to the UK when his passport was suddenly cancelled by the authorities. The legislation presently empowers the Home Secretary to do so when this is considered to be in the public interest, without even disclosing the grounds for the decision. and now the Parliament is considering to expand this power even further, to allow for revocation of citizenship even if this would render the person concerned stateless. The opposition against the bill is mounting, yet so far the bill is making a gradual progress through the Houses.

Read more details about the mounting opposition to the bill from The Bureau of Investigation Journalism.

Read the full personal story in The Independent.    

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ECtHR finds the Danish authorities’ refusal to grant family reunion to a naturalised Danish citizen justified

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The European Court of Human Rights decided that the refusal of the Danish authorities to grant family reunion to a naturalised Danish citizen with his Ghanian wife does not violate the right of respect to family life and the prohibition of discrimination enshrined in the ECHR.

As a matter of law and policy, the Danish authorities grant requests for reunification only when the applicants can prove that they have stronger ties with Denmark than with any other country. This attachment requirement is waived if the applicant has been Danish national for more than 28 years. In this case, the applicant had been Danish citizen for about a year and the authorities found that the couple was unable to prove that their aggregate ties with Denmark were stronger than their aggregate ties to Ghana. The Court decided that the authorities had struck a fair balance between the public interest in ensuring effective immigration control and the applicants’ need to be granted family reunion in Denmark. This raises concerns however that the 28 year rule effectively creates two different classes of citizenship.

Read the Court’s press release and the full text of the judgment.

Read a first analysis of the judgment here.

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European Commission emphasises that the residence requirement in the Maltese investor citizenship scheme must be effective

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In a reply to a parliamentary question, the European Commissioner Vivian Reding stated that “The Commission expects Member States to use their prerogative to award nationality in the spirit of sincere cooperation with other Member States and the EU” and that the Commission expects that the residency requirement must be effectively implemented on the ground. She also noted that the Commission is analysing similar schemes in all Member States “to make sure that the minimum requirement of a ‘genuine link’ to the country is met”.

Read the full answer here and its reporting in Malta Today.

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Germany agrees to allow dual citizenship to a broader category of second generation immigrants.

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German Minister of Justice announced that the government has reached an agreement to amend its citizenship law to allow to the children of immigrants to retain both the nationality of their parents and a German passports. Currently they have to renounce the former upon reaching 23, or they would lose the latter. The new proposal would allow to those who have resided in the country for 8 years, or were educated there for 6 years, to retain both. The President of the Turkish Community in Germany noted however that these conditions are still too exclusive and would still force thousands of people to chose.

EUDO Citizenship Directors warn that the requirement for 8 years of residence in Germany would discourage the whole family from moving to another EU Member State, and thus would hinder the free movement of persons which is a fundamental principle of the EU law. 

Read more details in The Local.

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Crimean residents will have to apply for residence permits

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While Russia is busy handing out passports to the residents of Crimea, those who do not want to become Russian citizens will be required to apply for residence permits to remain in their homes, the Ukrainian national radio reported, quoting the Russian Federal Migration Service. Russia claims that the 2 million Crimeans will face no difficulties to receive Russian passports, but this may be tricky for those who do not want to become Russian, or do not want to lose their Ukrainian citizenship. Russia allows dual citizenship but this is an administrative offence in Ukraine.

Read more details from the Ukrainian National Radio, Moscow Today and ITAR-TASS.    

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Danish government intends to allow dual citizenship

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The Danish Minister of Justice announced Government’s intent to see the citizenship law amended to allow for dual citizenship for the widest possible circle of applicants. This comes after an inter-ministerial working group, established in 2012, suggested several possible models for toleration of dual citizenship, together with different interim arrangements. However, this is still to be decided on political level and the Government will now invite the other political parties in the Parliament to debate the question.

 

Read more details in The Copenhagen Post and The Politken (in Danish)

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