The era of “golden visas” in Europe is coming to an end

The Western agency Bloomberg stated that the era of “golden visas” is ending in Europe – the system itself has led to a paradox of conflict of interests between states and political trends.

If, on the one hand, “golden visas” make it possible to attract investments into the country, on the other hand, there are significant risks of creating a privileged layer of foreign investors. For wealthy investors, the system offered more comfortable travel, a better life, and even easier retirement. The European Commission considers such a scheme undermining the essence of citizenship EU. Will Harvey, professor at the University of Bristol in the UK, explains:

“The downside of this is a big political trend that very wealthy investors from abroad have privileged status at a time when there are many challenges facing broad sections of society.”

Bloomberg recalls that European countries, including Greece, Portugal, Ireland and Spain, created a system of “golden visas” to attract foreign investors after the financial crisis. She helped get billions of dollars from abroad.

The other day it became known, as our publication wrote, that Portugal stop issuing “golden visas” for foreigners, as Prime Minister António Costa said. Ireland has taken a similar decision. Local authorities have begun to curtail national programs for granting citizenship to investors after a corresponding recommendation from the European Commission.

However, the fact that European “golden” passports soon to be invalid, we reported back in the spring of last year. The European Parliament voted a decision that it was time to put an end to the process of “selling” European citizenship to people from third countries. MPs plan to abolish golden visas over the next three years, by 2025. An important argument in favor of such a decision was the fact that with the help of purchased citizenship, rich Russians can avoid the sanctions imposed because of the war in Ukraine.

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