The Commission on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) today adopted the legislative report on the MEP Sophie in ‘t Veld Initiative on Citizenship and Residency by Investment Schemes, which aims to put an end to the citizenship by investment practiced by many European countries.
Renew Europe, a pro-European political group in the European Parliament, has consistently tried to end programs that allow foreigners to obtain visas in EU countries that run such programmes, although they are often criticized for their involvement in many illegal affairs, including That includes corruption and money laundering issues, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.
The coordinator of the LIBE Committee, as well as the report’s rapporteur, Sophie in ‘t Veld, declared that the Golden Visa Program is above all a golden opportunity for money laundering and corrupt access to the European Union.
Member states are selling something that does not belong to them: access to the European Union. In doing so, these member states benefit financially, but at the expense of the security and integrity of the Union. It is also unfair to those who invest in the EU economy through normal channels or those who go through a lengthy procedure to obtain a residence permit or citizenship in a member state. » The statement says.
The Coordinator also stressed that the Committee must now move forward with legislative proposals.
European countries like Greece, Portugal, Bulgaria, Austria, Ireland, Spain and Switzerland are famous for their golden visa programs which attract a large number of wealthy international investors.
Recently, an analytical tool published by Henley and Partners in collaboration with Deep Knowledge Analytics Best Real Estate Index for Migration ranked Spain, Montenegro, Turkey, Portugal and Greece in the top five as the best European countries for real estate investment and real estate. Residency and citizenship rights. .
However, due to their involvement in illegal acts, some European countries have announced that they will end such schemes.
Besides revamping Europe, several NGOs have also criticized the citizenship-by-investment schemes, including the European Union Commission, which has called on the authorities of countries running such schemes to abolish them as soon as possible.
Bulgarian Prime Minister Kirill Petkov promised that the country would soon end the golden visa program due to “Lack of real investment in the economy, which is likely to lead to job creation.”
Previously, the Golden Visa programs in Portugal and Greece were seen as having methodological problems, while the programs were used for nefarious purposes due to the lack of background checks.
Cypriot authorities also announced that they would cancel the golden visa program after an Al Jazeera report claimed that more than 1,000 foreigners bought citizenship in Cyprus between 2017 and 2019.
