New criteria for awarding Austrian citizenship on grounds of special achievement

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by Rainer Bauböck (EUDO CITIZENSHIP co-director)

A much criticized provision in Austria’s citizenship law allows to waive residence conditions, language and civic knowledge tests and the renunciation of a foreign citizenship “if the granting of nationality is in the particular interests of the Republic by reason of the alien’s actual or expected outstanding achievements” (Art. 10(6)). The critique focused mainly on the lack of transparency in the administrative procedure. Opera singer Anna Netrebko thus became an Austrian citizen although she does not speak German and does not live in Austria. In a famous case of political corruption, a Carinthian party official of the right wing populist Freedom Party had offered Austrian citizenship as “part of the game” if a Russian oligarch would contribute to party coffers. Austrian authorities reacted by not granting citizenship under this provision during the last two years. 

Now the Ministry of Interior has proposed a list of criteria that will in the future clarify the conditions for awarding what is commonly called “Promi-Staatsbürgerschaft” (citizenship for VIPs). The emphasis seems to be on expected future contributions to Austrian sports, arts, science or to the economy rather than on past achievements. Reports about the government bill, which has not yet been published, indicate that residence in Austria will still not be a requirement. In this respect, the Austrian reform proposal does not seem to have taken into account the recent intervention of the EU Commission against a Maltese law that had offered investors citizenship without a residence condition. The Maltese government has agreed to introduce a condition of residence for at least 12 months in order to make sure that big investors applying for naturalisation have a genuine link to the country before obtaining an EU passport.  

Read the latest news here (in German) and the previous reports in Die Presse, ORF online and Salzburger Nachrichten.

Read our news about the controversy over the Maltese citizenship for sale scheme in European Parliament here and Malta backing down here.

Read the Report by the Minister of the Interior to the Council of Ministers on the criteria for awarding Austrian citizenship based on special achievements.

 

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EUDO Citizenship launches a new database on electoral rights

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The EUDO CITIZENSHIP launches its new comparative database on Electoral Rights, which provides information on the conditions and procedures for voting of citizens and for non-citizens in the 28 EU Member States, in 10 types of elections. Data on the electoral rights of citizens who are not resident in their home state to be added in March.

The comparative database was commissioned by the Committee of Constitutional Affairs of the European Parliament.

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Malta backs down on selling citizenship after negotiations with the European Commission

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Malta changes its controversial citizenship law to introduce a 12 months residency as a precondition for naturalization.  In a joint press release last week Malta and the European Commission had already announced that the Individual Investment Program, which amounted to selling Maltese (and hence European) citizenship for cash will be amended.

The amendments seek to ascertain that there is a genuine link of the prospective citizen with the country before the passport is issued. According to the Prime Minister Muscat, quoted in Malta Today, the Commission committed itself to assure that the investor citizenship schemes operated in other countries meet the same conditions. In the past Montenegro has considered similar scheme, but backed down before it became operational under the Commission’s pressure in the course of its EU accession negotiations.

This comes after the Maltese government was subject to pressure both from the EU and from the domestic opposition. While the law has already become operational so that the first applications were being prepared, the oppositional Nationalist Party filed a declaration in court that it will repeal the scheme and withdraw the citizenships granted under it whenever it comes to power. The revocation of all citizenships acquired through the scheme would create problems of its own, and the Times of Malta turned for comments to the EUDO experts Maarten Vink and Jelena Dzankic who argued that any blanket revocation would be arbitrary, would violate the principle of proportionality of the EU law and Malta’s own law. On the other side, the scheme was heavily criticised by virtually everybody in a heated debate in the European Parliament and the European Commission threatened Malta with infringement proceedings for violation of its duty of sincere co-operation under Art. 4(3) of the Treaty on European Union.

 

Read more details about the amendment in Malta Today. 

Read the joint press release of the European Commission and Malta and the news about it in EUobserver and in Malta Today.

 

Read about the declaration of the opposition in the Times of Malta.

Read about the Commission considering infringement proceeding in the EUobserver. Read about the earlier debate in the European Parliament and the reactions in Malta here.

Read EUDO Citizenship expert Jelena Dzankic comparing Maltese and Montenegrin investor citizenship policies for the Times of Malta.

Read an interesting comment on the compatibility of the Maltese citizenship scheme with EU law here.

 

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Disenfranchisement: Commission acts to defend voting rights of EU citizens

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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. 

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