Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register BRUSSELS, March 28 (Reuters) – The European Commission on Monday called on EU governments to end national programs for the sale of citizenship to investors, also known as gold passports, and urged them to suspend visas for Russians and Belarusians. The move follows a new impetus from the European Parliament to shrink and regulate the multibillion-euro citizenship and visa industry, which the EU has long regarded as a security threat. It comes amid concerns that people affected by European Union sanctions over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine may hold EU gold visas or passports. Read more Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register “Some Russian or Belarusian nationals who are subject to sanctions or who strongly support the war in Ukraine may have acquired EU citizenship or privileged access to the EU, including free travel within the Schengen area under these schemes,” the European Commission said. . Monday. Since the start of the Russian aggression, which Moscow calls a special operation, the EU has blacklisted nearly 700 top politicians, businessmen and the military accused of supporting the Kremlin. Read more. The Commission has called for an immediate end to existing national passport sales programs. Currently, only Malta, Cyprus and Bulgaria have such programs and have pledged to end them. The Bulgarian parliament recently voted in favor of ending its program. Brussels also said governments should check whether sanctioned individuals had a gold passport or visa issued. The European Commission has stated that it does not know if the beneficiaries of the program were sanctioned. One spokesman declined to say whether he had asked EU states to provide lists of people who had purchased visas or passports. Countries will have to decide whether to cancel these passports and will have to revoke their residence permits immediately, the commission said. Several EU countries have gold visa programs and gold passport programs. The commission declined to call for an end to the visa regime, but called for tougher controls and called on EU governments to suspend the issuance of residence permits to Russians and Belarusians. (This story is corrected in the Bulgarian parliament instead of the Cypriot parliament, paragraph 6) Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register Report by Francesco Guarascio. Editing by Edmund Blair, Philippa Fletcher and Grant McCool Our role models: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
