Friday

29th Mar 2024

Buying an EU passport 'no use for evading sanctions'

  • Terrorism was almost the only reason for which EU nationals have been listed in the past (Photo: johnnyalive)

Buying an EU passport does not give you impunity from visa-bans or asset-freezes, officials have said, as citizenship sales multiply.

Terrorism, rather than politics, was almost the only reason for which EU nationals were blacklisted in the past, however.

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Get the EU news that really matters

Instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

"In the case of travel bans, it means that the person cannot travel to a country other than the one of his nationality (as s/he cannot be refused entry on the territory of the country of his/her nationality)," an EU official told EUobserver.

"If a European citizen is subject to restrictive measures such as an asset-freeze, then the blocking of bank accounts and other assets should be ensured by all the 27 EU member states," the official added.

"They should also make sure that economic resources are not made available to entities controlled by listed persons," the official said.

The net result was that if a Russian man, for instance, bought a Cypriot passport and then fell under EU sanctions, he would be allowed to go in and out of Cyprus, but not the rest of the EU.

And Cyprus would still be obliged to freeze his money or to stop it going to his relatives or companies.

The clarification came after the Al Jazeera news agency recently reported that Cyprus had sold hundreds of passports to 'politically exposed' persons from Russia and the Middle East.

Malta has also been selling passports en masse to Russian tycoons.

And Valletta's authorities recorded a spike in Russian applications after 2014 - when the EU first began blacklisting Russians due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Meanwhile, the number of EU sanctions is likely to proliferate in future, after the bloc recently agreed a new regime for cyber criminals and abusers of chemical weapons.

It is also in talks on listing egregious human rights abusers worldwide.

The EU system was already tested in one well-known case in 2011 in Cyprus.

Cyprus had sold EU nationality to Rami Makhlouf, a Syrian oligarch in January of that year. Just two months later, the EU blacklisted him over Syrian regime atrocities.

Cyprus did not disclose if it froze Makhlouf's assets, but Nicosia revoked his citizenship in 2012.

Meanwhile, EU officials noted that member states already had experience of imposing sanctions on EU nationals under the bloc's counter-terrorism register.

A scroll through the EU database showed it had listed nine French nationals, six Germans, and one Swede on grounds of membership in extremist Islamist groups.

It also listed 10 British nationals at a time when the UK was still part of the EU.

Stymied on 'golden passports', EU sets up expert group

The European Commission has described the sale of EU citizenship by Bulgaria, Cyprus and Malta as a "golden gate to Europe" for the rich. Unable to stop it, the commission now wants an expert group to probe the schemes.

EU Parliament set to sue EU Commission over Hungary funds

The European Parliament will likely take the European Commission to court for unblocking more than €10bn in funds for Hungary last December. A final nod of approval is still needed by European Parliament president, Roberta Metsola.

EU Commission clears Poland's access to up to €137bn EU funds

The European Commission has legally paved the way for Poland to access up to €137bn EU funds, following Donald Tusk's government's efforts to strengthen the independence of their judiciary and restore the rule of law in the country.

Opinion

Potential legal avenues to prosecute Navalny's killers

The UN could launch an independent international investigation into Navalny's killing, akin to investigation I conducted on Jamal Khashoggi's assassination, or on Navalny's Novichok poisoning, in my role as special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions, writes the secretary-general of Amnesty International.

Opinion

I'll be honest — Moldova's judicial system isn't fit for EU

To state a plain truth: at present, Moldova does not have a justice system worthy of a EU member state; it is riven with corruption and lax and inconsistent standards, despite previous attempts at reform, writes Moldova's former justice minister.

Latest News

  1. Kenyan traders react angrily to proposed EU clothes ban
  2. Lawyer suing Frontex takes aim at 'antagonistic' judges
  3. Orban's Fidesz faces low-polling jitters ahead of EU election
  4. German bank freezes account of Jewish peace group
  5. EU Modernisation Fund: an open door for fossil gas in Romania
  6. 'Swiftly dial back' interest rates, ECB told
  7. Moscow's terror attack, security and Gaza
  8. Why UK-EU defence and security deal may be difficult

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Nordic Council of MinistersJoin the Nordic Food Systems Takeover at COP28
  2. Nordic Council of MinistersHow women and men are affected differently by climate policy
  3. Nordic Council of MinistersArtist Jessie Kleemann at Nordic pavilion during UN climate summit COP28
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersCOP28: Gathering Nordic and global experts to put food and health on the agenda
  5. Friedrich Naumann FoundationPoems of Liberty – Call for Submission “Human Rights in Inhume War”: 250€ honorary fee for selected poems
  6. World BankWorld Bank report: How to create a future where the rewards of technology benefit all levels of society?

Join EUobserver

EU news that matters

Join us