Almaty implements artificial intelligence in smart city development
Almaty in Kazakhstan is making confident strides in digital transformation by building a comprehensive "smart city" infrastructure powered by artifici...
The EU's top court has ruled Malta's controversial golden passport scheme, which allowed foreigners to purchase citizenship for €690,000, unlawful, citing concerns over security and the commercialization of EU nationality.
Malta’s contentious golden passport scheme, which allowed foreign nationals to purchase EU citizenship for a minimum investment of €690,000, was declared unlawful by the EU's highest court on Tuesday, amid growing security concerns.
The European Commission had initiated legal action years ago, arguing that the scheme violated Malta’s obligation to cooperate sincerely with the EU. The program provided individuals the opportunity to acquire Maltese citizenship—and by extension, EU citizenship—without having any familial ties or residence in the country, enabling them to work across the EU.
The EU Court of Justice sided with the Commission, ruling that the scheme effectively commercialized the process of granting national and Union citizenship, which conflicts with the fundamental principles outlined in EU Treaties. The court also emphasized that payments or investments were central to the Maltese scheme and noted that actual residence was not a key requirement for granting nationality under this program.
As a result, the court determined that Malta failed to meet its obligations under EU law and ordered the country to cover the legal costs of the case.
This ruling contradicted the opinion of Advocate General Anthony Collins, who had suggested in a non-binding report last October that the scheme did not compromise the integrity of the EU. Collins argued that individual member states should have the sole authority to determine who is eligible for citizenship.
Malta’s golden passport scheme was the last remaining one within the EU after Cyprus ended its program in 2020 and Bulgaria followed suit in 2022. Other nations still operate “golden visa” schemes, which grant residence permits for investment, though these have also faced increasing scrutiny.
In 2023, Portugal scaled back its golden visa program, eliminating real estate investment requirements to curb speculation. The Netherlands halted its program in January 2024, and Spain has vowed to end golden visas tied to property investments.
These programs have raised serious concerns about security and money laundering, particularly since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, as wealthy individuals may use them to bypass sanctions. In 2022, MEPs called for stricter regulations and a ban on citizenship by investment, deeming it unethical, illegal, and economically questionable.
The story will be updated with reactions from Malta.
Video from the USGS (United States Geological Survey) showed on Friday (19 September) the Kilauea volcano in Hawaii erupting and spewing lava.
At least eight people have died and more than 90 others were injured following a catastrophic gas tanker explosion on a major highway in Mexico City’s Iztapalapa district on Wednesday, authorities confirmed.
At least 69 people have died and almost 150 injured following a powerful 6.9-magnitude earthquake off the coast of Cebu City in the central Visayas region of the Philippines, officials said, making it one of the country’s deadliest disasters this year.
Authorities in California have identified the dismembered body discovered in a Tesla registered to singer D4vd as 15-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez, who had been missing from Lake Elsinore since April 2024.
A powerful 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck off Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula on 13 September with no tsunami threat, coming just weeks after the region endured a devastating 8.8-magnitude quake — the strongest since 1952.
Multiple people are dead and several others are unaccounted for after a blast on Friday morning in Tennessee at a military explosives company, according to law enforcement.
Peru's lawmakers swore in Congress chief Jose Jeri as the country's new president less than an hour after unanimously voting to remove President Dina Boluarte, as anger mounted over rising crime and accusations of corruption.
South Korea on Friday summoned Cambodia’s ambassador to lodge a protest over the death of a South Korean student in the country and raised its travel advisory for Phnom Penh amid a surge in online scam cases targeting Korean nationals.
Leaders of CIS member states signed an agreement establishing the new ‘CIS Plus’ format at a summit in Dushanbe, expanding the organisation’s framework for cooperation with other states and regional bodies.
Large parts of Kyiv were plunged into darkness in the early hours of Friday after Russian drones and missiles struck Ukrainian energy facilities, cutting power and water to homes and halting a key metro link across the Dnipro river.
You can download the AnewZ application from Play Store and the App Store.
What is your opinion on this topic?
Leave the first comment