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At the same time that the European Commission was opposing the Malta scheme, Edi Rama began launching a similar scheme in Tirana, offering Albanian 'golden passports' to people who would invest millions of euros in various projects in Albania.
A ruling by Europe's highest court has struck down the golden passport model, which allows people to buy citizenship through investments worth millions of euros.
The Court's decision effectively overturned Malta's controversial "golden passport" program, and this stance is considered historic.
Prime Minister Edi Rama attempted to implement a similar model to Malta, but after international pressure, he withdrew from the idea, saying that he would wait for clarification at the European level.
Europe's highest court was moved by the European Commission, which took legal action against Malta in 2022 over its scheme that granted foreigners a Maltese — and therefore European Union — passport in exchange for a single investment of at least 600,000 euros and residency in Malta.
At the same time that the European Commission was opposing the Malta scheme, Edi Rama began launching a similar scheme in Tirana, offering Albanian 'golden passports' to people who would invest millions of euros in various projects in Albania.
At the time, the European Commission was strongly invested against Rama's plan, even from Tirana, Joseph Borrell, who held the position of head of European diplomacy, warned in 2023 that "such schemes pose risks in terms of security, money laundering, tax evasion, terrorist financing and infiltration by organized crime and are incompatible with EU legislation. As a candidate country [for EU membership], Albania should refrain from developing such a scheme."
After pressure, Edi Rama suspended the initiative, while stating that it would not be brought up again until the European Supreme Court had ruled. Today, this court spoke, thus rejecting an attempt by Edi Rama to apply the 'golden passport' scheme, an idea initially floated in 2019 and then held, perhaps as a pressure card against the EU, until 2023.
The European Union's Court of Justice said on Tuesday that the program was nothing more than a "commercialization" of citizenship, violated "good faith" and "mutual trust" between EU member states, and "violated EU law."
While Malta suspended the scheme for Russian and Belarusian citizens after the invasion of Ukraine, beneficiaries before the ban came into effect included sanctioned Russian businessmen, according to media reports.
Malta's government said it would implement Tuesday's decision and update its laws accordingly, according to local media.
"As always, the Maltese government respects the decisions of the courts," the government said in a statement.
"At this moment, the legal implications of this decision are being studied in detail, so that the regulatory framework on citizenship can be harmonized with the principles set out in the decision," the Maltese Government's response states.
The Maltese government added that previous beneficiaries of the scheme would not be affected and said the scheme had raised hundreds of millions of euros.
A Commission spokesman welcomed the decision. "European citizenship is not for sale," the spokesman said on Tuesday.
The spokesman also called for all similar schemes in the bloc to be abolished. Cyprus and Bulgaria have banned their golden passport programs. /Pamphlet/
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