In a recently published opinion, the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) recommends to phase out all investor schemes in the EU. Until this takes effect, the EESC calls for a number of measures: (1) the guarantee that public national authorities maintain primary responsibility for accepting or rejecting applicants, that they operate with strong oversight mechanisms and are subject to public scrutiny; (2) the establishment of coordination mechanisms to allow Member States to exchange information on successful and rejected applications for citizenship and residence permits; (3) the accreditation of all agents and intermediaries providing services to applicants, their subjection to codes of conduct and to the anti-money-laundering rules set out in the Fifth Anti-Money Laundering Directive; (4) the condition that accession countries should not run Citizenship by Investment (CBI) or Residence by Investment (RBI) schemes when they join the EU.

The opinion of the EESC is the latest addition to the debate on investor citizenship at the EU level. Other important documents on this topic include the Resolution of the European Parliament of 16 January 2014; the Debate of the European Parliament of 30 May 2018; the Report of the European Commission on Investor Citizenship and Residence Schemes in the European Union of 23 January 2019; and the Report of the Special Committee on Financial Crimes, Tax Evasion and Tax Avoidance (TAX3) of the European Parliament of 26 March 2019.