EU lawmakers to push for ban on new 'golden passports', visas for Russians

The move follows Russia's invasion of Ukraine which has triggered global sanctions of unprecedented severity against Moscow, with targets including a number of powerful and wealthy Russians seen as close to President Vladimir Putin.

The golden passport industry, which between 2011 and 2019 generated investments in EU countries of over 20 billion euros ($21.8 billion), is currently almost entirely unregulated in the EU, despite many countries having run these schemes for years.

EU states such as Malta and Cyprus have made huge profits with their schemes and the European Commission's vice president overseeing financial policy, Valdis Dombrovskis, set up a successful residence investment program in Latvia when he was prime minister there at the beginning of the last decade.

EU lawmakers say in their report that ending such schemes could have a significant economic impact in some countries. They are therefore proposing the gradual phaseout of golden passport schemes and tight rules for residence arrangements, including much more rigorous checks on applicants.

"Russians are the largest group of third-country nationals who have obtained golden visas and golden passports in the EU, many of them oligarchs with links to Putin's Kremlin. They escape sanctions merely by waving their nice EU passports. It must end," rapporteur Sophie In 'T Veld told the parliament during a debate on Monday.

In an amendment to the original proposal prompted by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the parliament urges an immediate halt to sales of visa and residence permits to Russians.

Once approved, the report will go to the European Commission, which has the power to propose legislation.

EU Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders told lawmakers that the EU executive disagreed with the need for new rules on sales of citizenship because it was already pushing through legal proceedings to shut down existing golden passport schemes in Malta, Cyprus and Bulgaria.

But the Commission has said it will assess the need for new laws to tighten golden visa schemes, and also issue shortly a non-binding recommendation on EU member states' issuance of golden passports and residence permits to Russians.

"The Commission welcomes the recent announcement of the Maltese authorities that they would suspend their citizenship programme for Russians and Belarusian citizens. This is a positive first step," Reynders said.