The Spanish newspaper El Pais compares the costs of the investment citizenship schemes across Europe and quotes the EUDO Citizenship expert Jelena Dzankic why this is so wrong.
Read the full story in El Pais.
On a meeting of diaspora groups held in Ankara last week, a number of Armenians called on Turkey to give them citizenship. Commentators regard this as offering a hand by the powerful diaspora ahead of the forthcoming commemoration of the 1915 tragedy which could be a way to mend the ties between Turkey and Armenia too.
Under the pressure of conservative backbenchers, the British Government proposes amendment to the Immigration Bill, which would allow the revocation of the British citizenship who are alleged treat to national security.
Read more details in the BBC and the Guardian.
Read first reactions here.
Since Latvia amended its law to allow dual citizenship to certain categories of emigrants last October, its Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs receives around 450 applications each month. Read more details here.
The European Commission has today issued guidance to EU-Member States which have rules in place leading to a loss of voting rights for citizens in national elections, simply because they have exercised their right to free movement in the EU. Five Member States (Denmark, Ireland, Cyprus, Malta and the United Kingdom) currently apply regimes which have that effect. Whilst under the existing EU Treaties, Member States are competent to determine who can benefit from the right to vote in national elections, disenfranchisement practices can negatively affect EU free movement rights. Disenfranchisement practises are also at odds with the founding premise of EU citizenship which is meant to give citizens additional rights, rather than depriving them of rights.
The Communication however rejects the suggestion advanced by the EUDO Co-Director Jo Shaw that Member States could use the Open Method of Coordination, or a set of bilateral processes within the framework of an overarching international convention, in order to ensure that voting rights for EU citizens are granted in the state where they live. Shaw had suggested that the reciprocity between the UK and Ireland in relation to national voting rights of each other’s citizens could be a laboratory for cooperation amongst the Member States.
Read the Commission’s communications and the full press release.
Read Commissioner Reding’s speech here.
Read details for the electoral rights in Denmark, Ireland, Cyprus, Malta and the United Kingdom in EUDO Citizenship database of National Electoral Laws.
UK Home Secretary presents to the Parliament “Scotland analysis: Borders and citizenship“, citing Jo Shaw and the research of EUDO Citizenship observatory. Read the report here.
Public support for allowing dual citizenship in Denmark increases and civil society organisations and parliamentarians expect that the legislation will be amended soon. The government is supportive, yet no such bill is included in the agenda for 2014. Read the Read More …
By Patrick Wautelet, EUDO CITIZENSHIP expert Figures on acquisition of Belgian nationality in 2013, the first full year of operation of the modified Code of Belgian Nationality show a dramatic decrease in the number of acquisitions. Only 4,981 foreigners obtained Read More …
The speed of handing out Bulgarian passports to citizens of Bulgarian descend from the neighbouring countries has decreased in the last year. Statistics show decline of naturalisation numbers since the new socialist government took office in May 2013. It is Read More …
By Rainer Bauböck (EUDO CITIZENSHIP co-director) On 16 January 2014, the European Parliament adopted a non-binding resolution criticizing a Maltese law that offers EU passports for sale. The resolution was supported by all major political groups and adopted by an Read More …
