The European Commission on 17 April released a statement regarding issues related to investment citizenship and residence schemes. The commission said the risk measures taken by member states operating golden visas and citizenship by investment schemes is not enough. It also said the lack of transparency and cooperation between member states exacerbate the risks.
In the wake of the financial crisis, various Member States, and particularly those that had been hardest hit by the crisis, made much use of these CBI/RBI programmes to boost investment in their countries.
The Commission in its report adopted on 23 January 2019, the Commission presented the first full mapping of the existing practices regarding residence and citizenship by investment schemes in the EU
The report showed a total of 23 out of 28 member states operate such schemes of which, 3 Member States operate schemes that grant citizenship and 20 Member States have schemes that grant residence permits for investment.
The report highlights certain risks such schemes could entail for the EU, in particular, as regards security, money laundering, tax evasion and corruption. A lack of transparency in how the schemes are operated and a lack of cooperation among Member States further exacerbate these risks.
The Commission has therefore expressed its concerns about the risks inherent in investor citizenship and residence schemes and about the fact that the risks are not always sufficiently mitigated by the measures taken by Member States.
The Commission will monitor steps taken by Member States to address issues of transparency and governance in managing these schemes.
The Commission is currently setting up a group of experts from Member States to look at the specific risks arising from investor citizenship schemes. The group will be tasked with developing a common set of security checks, including risk management processes that take into account security, money-laundering, tax evasion and corruption risks by the end of 2019.
It will also look at the good governance and transparency of both investor citizenship and residence schemes.
The statement released by commission is available here
