Opinion by World Citizenship Council
The World Citizenship Council (WCC) in response to the recent EESC recommendation, stands against ending Golden visa and citizenship schemes.
According to the EU commission report, 22 out of 28 member states operate a investor visa schemes granting residence permits for investments. Three member states Malta, Cyprus and Bulgaria officially operate Citizenship by investment scheme
“While big economies such as US, Canada efficiently operate golden visa schemes attracting FDI, what is the problem with EU operating such schemes? Instead of EU helping member states implement efficient policy measures, these schemes are heavily criticized”, said WCC spokesperson
WCC warns that any hasty measures implemented to end investor residence and citizenship schemes, would crash real estate markets throwing member states into recession. Further thousands of law firms and agents in the investment immigration industry will be greatly effected by phasing out these already popular schemes.
Greece, Portugal and Spain operate the most popular golden visa schemes and these countries just recently recovered from recession and going towards positive GDP growth.
The investment immigration industry is estimated at $12 billion annually worldwide with North america attracting lions share of investments in the immigration market.
The EU countries have failed to attract significant investments compared to US and Canada, despite the popularity of the schemes in Europe.
WCC insists the Committee setup by European Commission, to actively engage and have dialogue with member states in implementing policy measures in improving security checks, transparency, corruption, AML and tax issues.
WCC and the the immigration industry welcomes new policy measures from EU in strengthening the CBI and RBI schemes. These policies will only increase the reputation, trust and protect the integrity of these schemes in Europe.
WCC also recommends member states operating investor residency/citizenship schemes to diversify investment options such as Government bonds/securities, Green energy, Startups etc, rather than only focusing on the real estate sector. These diversifications decouple real estate market and will stop rising property sale and rental prices.
About World Citizenship Council (WCC)
World Citizenship Council is a non-profit organization and startup for research and development of CBI and RBI schemes. The Council brings together citizenship experts, law firms from around the world involved in the immigration industry.
Membership is Free.
Please register at: https://worldcitizenshipcouncil.org
