The European Commission has decided to refer Malta to the Court of Justice of the European Union for selling passports to wealthy investors. It is the latest step in the EU's long-running battle against the investor citizenship scheme, also known as 'golden passports'. Malta remains the only country to have such a scheme after both Bulgaria and Cyprus scapped theirs. In a statement, the commission said it considers that granting EU citizenship in return for pre-determined payments or investments without any genuine link to the member state concerned is not compatible with the principle of sincere cooperation enshrined in the Treaty on European Union, and with the concept of Union citizenship. Malta disputes that view, insisting again on Thursday that it was correct in its interpretation of EU treaties. On October 20, 2020, the Commission sent a letter of formal notice to Malta, urging it to end its investor citizenship scheme. It sent an additional letter of formal notice to Malta on June 9, 2021, following the introduction of a new scheme at the end of 2020. Following Russia's war against Ukraine, Malta suspended the sale of passports for Russian and Belarusian...
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