Good morning,
No one’s asking for a refund yet, but a shock ruling by the EU’s top court has thrown Malta’s €1.4bn golden passport hustle into legal and political turmoil. In a final, unappealable judgment Tuesday, the European Court of Justice said Malta had “commercialised” EU citizenship by selling passports to people with no real link to the country.
That, the court said, violated the EU treaties. Brussels now expects Malta to comply. If it doesn't, the commission could seek an injunction and a fine, like the €1m-a-day penalty Poland got in 2021 for trying to bring its judges to heel.
Yesterday’s verdict didn’t force Malta to cancel existing passports, but it didn’t protect them either. That opens the door to potential revocations, lawsuits, and damage claims against agents like Henley & Partners, who called the ruling “politically motivated”.
Other countries, including Bulgaria and Cyprus, already dropped similar schemes years ago, but their customers may still have their passports revoked.
The Maltese government on Tuesday defended itself, saying it used passport earnings to fund nice things, such as a palliative-care hospice. But local journalists have yet to find a single concrete example to back that up.
As one lawyer put it, the court’s move was a “Jesus in the temple” moment for the EU, referring to the Biblical story of money-changers being driven out of the Jewish Temple.
– Wester van Gaal, economy journalist
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