The European Commission announced that it is satisfied with the changes made to the Maltese Citizenship Act, which would now require effective residency in the country as a condition for naturalisation. This comes after a heated controversy between the Maltese government with the Commission and the European Parliament on one side and the domestic opposition on the other. 

While citizenship laws of many other EU countries have procedures for facilitated naturalisation of big foreign investors, the Maltese scheme initially offered citizens to applicants who may have never set foot in the country. Even with the new requirements for effective bonds with the country, the interest in Maltese passports remains high and so far 277 foreigners have requested application documents.       

 

Read more details about the controversy here and about the recent settlement in The Independent of Malta.

Earlier this year the EUDO CITIZENSHIP observatory published a working paper “Should Citizenship be for Sale?” with the contributions from our forum debate, which has been distributed to the political groups and committees of the European Parliament prior to the debate.