The European Court of Justice has just announced its ruling on Malta’s passport sales to non-EU citizens saying the sales go against the treaty of the European Union and demanded to pay the costs of the case. The ECJ said that although the definitions and conditions for granting or losing nationality are at the discretion of Member States, the commercialisation of citizenship is incompatible with the basic concept of Union citizenship as defined by the European Union Treaty.
The case was brought to the Court via infringement proceedings by the European Commission back in 2020.
The European Union describes the bond of nationality with a Member State as one based on a specific relationship of solidarity, good faith and the reciprocity of rights and duties between States and its citizens and the commercialisation of nationality infringes on these principles. In addition, it infringes on the principle of sincere cooperation and jeopordises the mutual trust between Member states.
According to the ruling of the ECJ, the IIP violated Article 20 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European for commercialising nationality and thus violating the essential principles of EU citizenship. The Court also found that the scheme violates Article 4(3) of the Treaty on European Union for breaking mutual trust between Member States.
The Maltese government issued a lengthy response to the ruling saying the scheme brought investment into the country. The government statement may also be contradicting sayign that although it will respect the Court’s decision, it will modify its scheme to align with the Court’s ruling and that the decisions on the scheme by the current and previous administrations remain valid. The ECJ however, has said that Malta needs to comply with the Court’s judgement without delay.
Disgraced ex-Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, who originally founded the scheme, published a statement on Facebook saying the decision is political. Prime Minister Robert Abela said there were those who incited against this programme to earn a role, a probable reference to the European Parliament President Roberta Metsola.
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