While Malta suspended the program for Russian and Belarusian citizens following the invasion of Ukraine, the beneficiaries before the prohibition did not include sanctioned Russian businessmen.
Malta’s government said it would respect Tuesday’s decision and update its laws accordingly, according to local media.
“As always, the government of Malta respects court decisions,” the government said in a statement. “At the moment, the legal implications of this judgment are studied in detail, so that the regulatory framework on citizenship can then be led to the principles described in judgment.”
The Maltese government added that former program beneficiaries would not be affected and said the regime had raised hundreds of millions of euros.
A commission spokesperson welcomed the decision. “European citizenship is not for sale,” the spokesman said on Tuesday. “We expect Malta to comply with this decision and apply it accordingly.”
The spokesperson also called all similar schemes in the block to be abolished. Cyprus and Bulgaria have interrupted their own gold passport programs, Nicosia revoking some of the passports he had given, mainly to the Russians.
The court’s decision was celebrated by NGOs. “Today’s judgment confirms that the Member States cannot commodity for EU citizenship and exploit reckless gold passport programs,” the CEO of Transparency International said Maíra Martini, in a press release.
Former Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, who presented the program in 2014, called on the decision of Motivated Tuesday and accused the president of the European Parliament Roberta Metsola of “working against our country” in an article on Facebook. Muscat is currently being prosecuted in Malta for an alleged corruption.
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