European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) has called for phasing out CBI and RBI schemes in its opinion adopted on October planetary session citing several risks associated with the schemes.
In the last decades, the financial crisis has triggered a need to increase revenues in many EU Member States, who have set up schemes allowing third country nationals fast-track access to EU citizenship or residence in exchange for making a significant investment for golden visas or passports.
“The EESC is very worried about the promotion of EU rights and EU citizenship as a product for sale”, Roirant said.
The EESC pointed out the following risks involved with the CBI/RBI schemes
- The profile and the origin of applicants often makes it difficult to carry out proper security checks within few months and not all Member States are equally selective.
- The intermediary bodies through which the funds paid by applicants are channeled are not subject to EU legislation on money laundering;
- The lack of harmonised standards could encourage a race to the bottom in terms of transparency.
- The decision by a Member State to grant a visa or a passport may affect other Member States and the EU as a whole, since such a decision grants access to the entire Schengen area and the internal market
- The volatility of investment flows, socioeconomic risks resulting from price inflation on the property market pose risks of increasing discrimination between categories of migrants.
EESC Recommendations
The EESC endorses the work of the group of Member State experts set up by the European Commission, until the schemes are phased out, this group should focus on
- Setting minimum standards for due diligence and security checks and for the operational integrity of the schemes.
- Establish a coordination mechanism that allows Member States to exchange information on successful and rejected applications for citizenship and residence in order to avoid “passport-shopping” or “visa-shopping” between jurisdictions by risky individuals.
- All agents and intermediaries providing services to applicants be subject to EU anti-money-laundering rules and calls for clarification of the role of the private sector, with the introduction of an obligatory code of conduct, supervision of regulated professionals and establishment of a publicly accessible Registry of Service Providers in this field.
- Accession countries should not be allowed to run their own schemes when they join, so that no new schemes are added to the ones currently in place.
The full press release is available here
