European values are not for sale –the European conflict of selling citizenship

Abstract

The field of investment migration is currently marked by opposing dynamics. In the United States, the newly introduced “Trump Gold Card” allows investors to purchase residence permits—so-called Golden Visas—for one million dollars. In Europe, by contrast, the selling of citizenship—so-called Golden Passports—was recently declared incompatible with EU law.

In a remarkable decision at the end of April 2025, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) banned Malta’s citizenship-by-investment (CBI) scheme, which had been in operation for more than a decade. In 2014, the Maltese government introduced the Individual Investor Programme (IIP), allowing high-net-worth individuals (HNWI) to acquire citizenship for an investment sum over €600,000. For over a decade, Malta granted citizenship to wealthy individuals and raised more than €1.4 billion, mostly channelled into a state-managed fund. In 2023, the European Commission (COM) took Malta to the European Court of Justice (ECJ), which ruled in favour of the Commission at the end of March this year. This marked the termination of the EU’s last remaining programme of its kind, following Cyprus and Bulgaria’s earlier discontinuation of the practice. The ECJ ruled that Malta's citizenship by investment programme (CBI) is not compatible with the EU Treaties because it violates the principles of loyal cooperation (Article 4(3) TEU) and Union citizenship (Article 20 TFEU). The latter has existed since the Treaty of Maastricht and is enshrined there as additive to national citizenship. This decision has been viewed critically by as the right to grant citizenship appeared to lie solely with the Member States.

Drawing on perspectives from economic sociology and the political economy of European integration, this dissertation chapter examines the rise and fall of Malta’s Golden Passports. The analysis builds on qualitative data, including interviews, policy reports and recommendations, and the ECJ’s ruling. The chapter conceptualizes the Maltese CBI scheme as a field where market logics intersect with state sovereignty, supranational regulation, and elite privilege. It represents the elite flip side of the migration coin—where capital functions as a gatekeeping mechanism for inclusion in both a member state society and the wider European Union. Yet the field is not governed by market or legal logics alone. Moral discourses play a crucial role in shaping how these schemes are negotiated and justified. The legitimacy of selling access to societies thus becomes a controversial moral boundary, with states, EU institutions and elites wrestling for over a decade to define what the value of citizenship implies.