Cyprus may end up in court facing the European Commission for selling EU citizenship to wealthy individuals with possible criminal backgrounds. #eudebates #VISA #Cyprus #passports #GoldenVISA
The statement from the EU Commission on Tuesday (13 October) follows revelations by an undercover team of Al Jazeera journalists.
Cyprus cancels controversial ‘golden passport’ programme
Cyprus will scrap its controversial “golden passport” scheme that granted citizenship and a European Union passport to those willing to pay.
The lucrative programme allowed wealthy non-Europeans to get a passport for a minimum of €2.15 million by investing €2 million in real estate and donating €75,000 to the government’s research and development fund, and €75,000 to the country’s Land Development Organisation.
“No other European golden visa program guarantees such assured results offering an EU second passport in just two to three months,” the official website states.
The programme’s cancellation comes after an investigation by Al Jazeera revealed that Cypriot officials were selling the passports to a Chinese businessman with a reported criminal record.
Officials who surfaced in hidden camera footage by Al Jazeera included Parliamentary President Demetris Syllouris who has stepped down from his duties pending an investigation. MP Christakis Giovanis has also stepped down since the investigation aired on Monday.
Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades hosted a Council of Ministers meeting on Tuesday during which government finance and interior ministers submitted a proposal to abolish the scheme.
Government Spokesman Kyriakos Koushos said the “proposal was based on the longterm weaknesses, as well as the abusive exploitation of the provisions of the Cyprus Investment Programme.”
The scheme will be cancelled by November 1. Cyprus’ attorney general is also conducting an investigation into the programme.
“We watched in disbelief how high-level officials were trading European citizenship for financial gains,” said EU Commission spokesperson Christian Wigand at a press briefing. He added that Commission President Ursula von der Leyen “was clear when saying European values are not for sale.”
“The Commission is currently looking into compliance with EU law of the Cypriot scheme in view of possible infringement proceedings,” Wigand said.
#eudebates
Cyprus on Tuesday announced the suspension of a “golden passport” scheme to sell citizenship to wealthy investors after investigative journalists on Monday revealed how high-ranking politicians were willing to issue passports to convicted criminals.
The Cypriot government said on Tuesday that the seven-year-old “citizenship by investment” programme would end on November 1: “The proposal was based on the long-standing weaknesses but also on the abusive exploitation of the provisions of the programme”, the statement said.
Under the scheme, anyone who could afford to invest at least $2.5m in the Cypriot economy, usually through real estate, was able to obtain a Cypriot passport.
Cypriot attorney general George Savvidis said an investigation into possible criminal offences would be launched: “What has been published in the last few hours by the Al Jazeera news network is causing outrage, anger and concern among the people”, he said in a statement.
On Monday, Al Jazeera’s Investigative Unit released The Cyprus Papers Undercover, which showed the willingness of parliament speaker, Demetris Syllouris, and MP Christakis Giovanis, to aid and abet convicted criminals to obtain a passport through the Citizenship Investment Programme (CIP).
The programme has been regularly criticised by the EU and anti-corruption NGOs, which have claimed the scheme increases the risk of money laundering through Europe’s financial institutions. After the latest revelations, the EU Commission said it had watched the revelations in disbelief: “President von der Leyen was clear when saying that European values are not for sale”, the Commission said in a statement.
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