Valerio Pappalardo has been responsible for designing and developing the web infrastructure of EUDO Citizenship, including a large number of databases, eg on national citizenship laws, modes of acquisition of citizenship, modes of loss of citizenship, protection against statelessness in Read More …
Local elections in France have acquired a strong European dimensions with thousands of citizens from all other member stands running for local councilors. Even the lists of the anti-European National Front feature about 80 foreigners. Read more details in The Read More …
Malta’s highest court rejected the appeal of a woman whose Maltese citizenship was withheld after her marriage with a local man had been declared void. The court held that the decision of the authorities did not violate domestic, European or international law, even though the woman became stateless as a result of it.
Read the full story in The Times of Malta.
Read other news about citizenship in Malta.
Read news about deprivation of citizenship elsewhere.
Only a month after the much contested investor citizenship scheme entered into force, the first applications for Maltese citizenship are already approved. This may appear surprising, as in the final version of the law, the Maltese government, under heavy European pressure, had introduced a one year residency requirement to assure that the new citizens have actual bonds to the country. Yet, the officials assert that the requirement was observed, and all of the approved applicants had been already living in the country.
Read more in the Times of Malta.
Read about the continuing domestic controversy in The Times of Malta and Malta Today.
Undercover reporters of The Telegraph have filmed a Bulgarian businessman offering them a ‘fast track’ to a Bulgarian passport at the cost of 180,000 euro. While the newspaper emphasizes that it is not accusing him for doing anything illegal, this raises serious concerns how the state administers its investor citizenship scheme.
The company involved – Arton Capital – is a consultancy, specialised in immigrant investor programs worldwide and the agent himself – Milen Keremedchiev used be a deputy minister of foreign affairs and had other diplomatic positions.
Read the full story in The Telegraph.
Read more details in Deutsche Welle (in Bulgarian) and in Pressa Daily (in Bulgarian).
By Asli Okyay, PhD researcher (European University Institute) External voting was introduced for the first time in Turkey by the amendment on the law on elections and electoral registers (no.298) in 1987. It made it possible for Turkish citizens who Read More …
As reported on EUDO CITIZENSHIP, while Russia has been handing out passports in Crimea, the Duma is also considering new laws that would simplify citizenship acquisition for Ukrainians. According to an Interfax report, competing proposals have been submitted to the Duma as to who exactly would be able to claim Russian citizenship under simplified rules. Specifically, three potential target groups exist: 1) Russian-speaking former Soviet citizens facing discrimination (Communist party proposal); 2) citizens of Ukraine who are ethnic Russians and their family members who are compatriots, provided ethnic Russian origin can be documented (Zhirinovsky’s LDPR party proposal), and 3) all citizens of Ukraine irrespective of ethnic origin (Just Russia’s proposal). The latter is the most recent, the first two were submitted earlier in February. The presence of these competing proposals suggests that Russian lawmakers are debating whether to extend citizenship to more demographically desirable ethnic Slavs, or to a broader category of Russian-speakers, and whether to aim the law at just Ukraine, or the territory of the former Soviet Union generally.
Read a background analysis in the Washington Post by Eric Lohr: What can passports tell us about Putin’s intentions?
Read the Interfax report (in Russian) and a commentary in Eurasianet.org (in English).
In a Report published today, the Joint Committee on Human Rights (JCHR) expresses significant concerns about the possible use of new powers contained in Clause 60 of the Immigration Bill to deprive naturalised UK citizens of their UK citizenship and leave them stateless.
In its report, JCHR:
– expresses surprise at the Government’s refusal to inform Parliament of the number of cases in which the existing power to deprive of citizenship has been exercised while the UK citizen is abroad, or of the number of cases in which the Secretary of State’s decision was taken wholly or partly in reliance on information which in the Secretary of State’s view should not be made public. Parliament is entitled to know this information in order to assist it to reach a view as to how the new power is likely to be exercised in practice;
– considers that there was time to hold a public consultation on the controversial new power in clause 60 which would have made for better informed parliamentary scrutiny of the Government’s proposal;
– is not persuaded that there are sufficiently weighty reasons to justify the new power being made retrospective, and recommends that the Bill be amended so as to prevent it having retrospective effect; and
– is concerned about the impact of the new power on children and recommends an amendment to the Bill which requires the Secretary of State to take into account the best interests of any child affected when deciding whether to make a deprivation order under the new power.
Source: UK Parliament
Several parties in the Russian Duma called for a fast-track citizenship procedure for Ukrainians. While it is still uncertain if the governmental majority will embrace the idea, the consulate in Simferopol already issues passports and pictures of officers from ‘Bercut’ Read More …
The Federal Constitutional Court found that the 3% threshold which the German parties have to overcome at the elections for the European Parliament violates is unconstitutional. according to the judges this is a serious interference with the principles of electoral Read More …
