"The European Court of Justice on Tuesday said Malta needs to end its golden passport program that allows wealthy foreigners to buy citizenship, as it is an infringement of EU law."
Full Reuters article: https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/eu-top-court-rules-against-maltas-golden-passport-scheme-2025-04-29/
Thats too bad
Sad news for corrupt Maltese mafiosi, Russian oligarchs, and other international criminals.
Great news for everyone else.
There goes my plan for after I win the lottery
I like the idea of having an assortment of visa and path to citizenship options, so the possibility of stricter EU enforcement cascading to other members worries me (a little).
On the other hand, the impact of some of these programs on housing markets does seem to be real. In all likelihood, the impact is negligible compared to AirBNB or similar, but "ghost properties" seem to be real issues in places like London or Vancouver where housing stock is tied up by folks who used it to gain access to a place but don't turn around and use it or rent it. Not sure if the Malta plan was inclusive of real estate or not, so may not be a relevant worry.
This was good to read, though: "Current EU legislation does not, however, regulate conditions for granting residence permits, which several member states offer in return for investments."
