Malta’s ‘golden passport’ scheme ruled to be illegal by EU’s top court

Long-awaited ruling means cash-for-citizenship programme that allowed people to live and work in bloc must be scrapped

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The European court of justice has ruled that Malta's golden passport" scheme is illegal, meaning its cash-for-citizenship programme must be scrapped.

In a long-awaited ruling on Tuesday, the EU's top court concluded that Malta's investor citizenship scheme was contrary to EU law. Judges said the scheme represented a commercialisation of the grant of the nationality of a member state" and by extension EU citizenship, which was at odds with European law. Malta had jeopardised the mutual trust between EU member states necessary to create an area without internal borders, the court argued.