Answer given by Ms Johansson on behalf of the European Commission
11.3.2021
The Commission is closely monitoring investor citizenship schemes in third countries with visa-free access to the EU, including as part of the visa suspension mechanism[1].
Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia and Vanuatu allow applicants that have not spent a significant amount of time in their territory to apply for citizenship through an investment. The minimum investments required vary from EUR 100 000 to EUR 400 000 and the processing times vary in most cases from one to six months.
The schemes operated by Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia and Vanuatu have been classified by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) as potentially posing a high-risk to the integrity of OECD/G20 Common Reporting Standard[2]. These schemes may also disrupt the exchanges of information between tax authorities of EU Member States under the directive on Administrative Cooperation[3], insofar as these exchanges are based on the Common Reporting Standard.
The number of citizenships granted by each country in this context, according to data available to the Commission, is provided in a footnote to this reply[4].
Moldova terminated its investor citizenship scheme on 1 September 2020. Tuvalu abandoned its plans for a citizenship scheme following exchanges with the EU in 2016. Plans for a citizenship scheme in the Solomon Islands are currently on hold.
- [1] COM/2020/325 final; SWD/2020/351 final.
- [2] The other schemes were created after the publication of the OECD list ( https://www.oecd.org/tax/automatic-exchange/crs-implementation-and-assistance/residence-citizenship-by-investment/ ).
- [3] Council Directive 2011/16/EU of 15 February 2011 on administrative cooperation in the field of taxation and repealing Directive 77/799/EEC, http://data.europa.eu/eli/dir/2011/16/2020-07-01 (consolidated text including a number of amendments adopted since 2014).
- [4] Antigua and Barbuda: 3 835 (by 2019); Grenada: 4 341 (by 2020); Montenegro: 41 (by 2020); Moldova: 35 (by 2020); North Macedonia: 103 (by 2021); Saint Kitts and Nevis: 16 544 (by 2018); Saint Lucia: 415 (by 2019); Vanuatu: 4 031 (by 2020).