News

Hungary: Romanian and Hungarian Ministers of Foreign Affairs discuss Hungarian citizenship law

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By EUDO CITIZENSHIP research collaborator Andrei Stavila

19 June 2010

According to Romania’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Teodor Baconschi Romania wants to be sure that the application of Hungary’s new citizenship law respects international agreements as well as ‘the spirit and the letter of international law’.

Baconschi said Hungary’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Janos Martonyi had assured him ‘that Budapest will apply all amendments to the citizenship law in such a manner that discrimination on ethnic grounds and any form of mass acquisition of citizenship will be avoided’, said Baconschi after meeting with his Hungarian counterpart.

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Lithuania: The Provisional Law on Citizenship Remains in Effect

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by EUDO CITIZENSHIP expert Egidijus Kūris

30 June 2010 **UPDATE**

As recently reported on EUDO CITIZENSHIP (see below), the parliamentary vote on the new Law on Citizenship was planned for 29 June 2010. The new Law had to replace the current one which, after two prolongations, is valid until 1 January 2011. It was also expected that, together with the adoption of the new Law, the Seimas (parliament) would refer it to the Constitutional Court to review the constitutionality of some of its provisions, namely those which open widely the doors to multiple citizenship.

However, the citizenship issue (as many others, too) was removed from the agenda of the Seimas due to the fact that on that day the Seimas held a solemn sitting to commemorate the late Algirdas Mykolas Brazauskas, President of Lithuania from 1993 to 1998, who had died three days earlier. So far, the citizenship issue is not included in the agenda of parliamentary sittings for the coming days. It is expected that the Seimas will go into summer recess on 3 July 2010. Thus, the vote on the new law may be held only in the fall session of the Seimas between 10 September and 23 December 2010 (unless an extraordinary session is convened earlier).

Consequently, in the meantime, the current provisional Lithuanian Law on Citizenship remains in effect.

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Denmark: New rules on access to permanent residence passed in Parliament on 25 May 2010

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by EUDO CITIZENSHIP expert Eva Ersbøll

 

On 26 March 2010 a Bill was presented in ther Danish Parliament proposing comprehensive amendments to the Aliens Act, including a reform of the rules on access to permanent residence. The Bill was enacted two months later, on 25 May. With the amendments to the Aliens Act the requirements on access to permanent residence have been strengthened to a degree that will probably prevent many foreigners from acquiring a permanent residence permit and thus also prevent them from access to citizenship.

The new requirements apply to foreigners who make applications for permanent residence on or after 26 March 2010. According to section 11 of the Aliens Act they must have attained the age of 18 and achieved at least 100 points according to section 11, paragraph 4-6 (70 points must be achieved according to paragraph 4, 15 points according to paragraph 5 and 15 points according to paragraph 6).

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United Kingdom: 29.1 percent of migrants taking the citizenship test fail

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by EUDO CITIZENSHIP expert Helena Wray

Figures released by the British government show that 29.1 percent of migrants who take the ‘Life in the UK’ test fail it.

The test, alongside an English language test, was introduced in 2005 for candidates for naturalisation and extended to most of those acquiring settlement in 2007. All applicants for naturalisation must take the test either at the settlement or the naturalisation stage, unless they are exempt due to age or infirmity.

Failure rates are highly differentiated by nationality. 98 percent of Australians, 97 percent of Americans and 96.9 percent of Canadians who took the test passed it. Other countries where English is widely spoken also fared relatively well with 90.2 percent of Zimbabweans and 82.5 percent of Nigerians passing. However, several nationalities with substantial numbers of migrants in the UK scored less than 50 percent. For example, only 47.9 percent of Iraqis, 47.8 percent of Afghans, 45.9 percent of Turks and 44 percent of Bangladeshis passed. Many Afghans and Iraqis are in the UK as refugees or with subsidiary protection. Although they do not need to pass the test to remain in the UK, their position is more secure after naturalisation. Other migrants, for example spouses or workers, cannot obtain a secure status without passing the test.

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Latvian Constitutional Court acknowledges the right of the legislature to set deadline for registration as dual citizen

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by EUDO CITIZENSHIP expert Kristine Kruma

The Latvian Constitutional Court reaffirmed the validity of the norm in the country’s Transitional Provisions of the Law on Citizenship which provided for holders of dual citizenship acquired during the Nazi and Soviet occupation. According to this norm, individuals who were deported or left Latvia during occupation can keep the second nationality acquired during their time abroad if registered as Latvian citizens before July 1, 1995.

The Senate of the Supreme Court had contested this norm claiming that the registration deadline did not comply with Article 1 (Latvia is an independent democratic republic), and Article 2 (the sovereign power of the State of Latvia is vested in the people of Latvia) of the Constitution, and the doctrine of continuity of the State of Latvia stated in the country’s Declaration of Independence.

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Montenegro signs the European Convention on Nationality but rejects dual citizenship

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by EUDO CITIZENSHIP/CITSEE expert Jelena Džankić

On May 5, 2010, Montenegro signed the European Convention on Nationality. The Convention was promulgated in Strasbourg in November 1997, and provides for non-discrimination in regulating questions of nationality. It attempts to prevent statelessness and regulates multiple nationality.
The signature has been preceded by a Law on Confirming the European Convention on Nationality, adopted on March 2, 2010. The Law enters into force on the eighth day from the date of its publication in the Official Gazette of Montenegro – International Agreements. Pursuant to article 3 of the Law, ‘Montenegro does not accept the implementation of provisions stipulated in article 16 of the Convention’. This reservation clause has its roots in the current Citizenship Act, which does not allow dual citizenship.

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Hungary: Earlier reports on the citizenship law reform on EUDO CITIZENSHIP

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Read a summary of the new provisions in the Hungarian Nationality Act (July 13, 2010)

“Ethnic Hungarians in transborder states may well be the biggest losers and victims of Hungary’s dual citizenship reforms”

by EUDO CITIZENSHIP experts Mária M. Kovács and Szabolcs Pogonyi

24 May 2010

During the past eight years of the socialist-liberal coalition government, the rift between the opposition and the ruling parties grew bitter: it seemed that no consensus on important political questions is possible between the Hungarian governing parties and the opposition. But after the landslide victory of the centre-right Fidesz party in the April parliamentary elections, consensual politics seem to be alive again – at least on some important national issues, primarily on offering citizenship for Hungarians living abroad and the commemoration of the tragic consequences of the 1920 Paris peace treaties. After initial discussions in the Parliament it seems that all major parties support Fidesz’s initiative to offer dual external citizenship for Hungarians living in the neighboring countries, and also endorse the commemoration of the anniversary of the 1920 Paris peace treaties as Hungary’s biggest national catastrophe.

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Reactions in Ukraine, Slovakia, Romania and Serbia to Hungary’s decision to give access to citizenship to ethnic Hungarians

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Reactions in Ukraine

By EUDO CITIZENSHIP expert Oxana Shevel

12 July 2010

Unlike in neighbouring Slovakia where the May 26 amendment to the law on Hungarian citizenship that granted persons of Hungarian ancestry residing abroad the right to Hungarian citizenship led to a domestic outcry, in Ukraine there has not been any official reaction so far. According to the 2001 census, Hungarians are the 7th largest ethnic group in Ukraine, numbering 156,600. They are concentrated in the Zakarpattia oblast (region) in the south-west corner of the country where they constitute the second largest ethnic group (after Ukrainians), numbering 151,500, or 12 percent of the region’s population. Given that within the region the Hungarians are further concentrated in the districts along the Hungarian border, and that today’s Zakarpattia was part of the Kingdom of Hungary and became part of the Soviet Ukraine only in 1945, one can expect Ukraine to be as sensitive as Slovakia and Romania to the dangers of Hungarian irredentism that some suspect lurking behind the new Hungarian law. The Hungarian law also relates to Ukraine’s long-standing concerns about, and opposition to, the principle of dual citizenship. This opposition stems first and foremost from the Ukrainian elites’ fears that dual citizenship with Russia can endanger Ukraine’s sovereignty and potentially even territorial integrity, given that Ukraine’s ethnic Russians are concentrated in Ukraine’s regions bordering Russia, especially in Crimea where they constitute the majority. Even though there is no dual citizenship agreement between Russia and Ukraine and Ukrainian legislation does not recognize dual citizenship, Russia has been issuing Russian passports to Ukrainian citizens since the 1990s. According to some estimates, as many as 100,000 people in Crimea now hold both Ukrainian and Russian passports.

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Belgium: Bill to tighten access to naturalisation

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Shortly before resigning, the Belgian government led by prime minister Yves Leterme adopted a bill reforming acquisition of Belgian citizenship. This reform had been on the coalition government’s agenda since July 2009. The fall of the government means that the future of the bill is uncertain. It has not yet been published in the official bulletin Moniteur Belge. The following text reprinted from Migration News Sheet May 2010 summarises the content of the intended reform.

[MNS 05/2010] On 9 April 2010, the Federal Government adopted a Bill aimed at tightening the conditions of access to Belgium citizenship.

Under the terms of the Bill, only foreigners holding a residence permit of unlimited duration are entitled to apply for Belgian citizenship.

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