European Commissioner for Justice Didier Reynders has told Al Jazeera he is looking into the possibility of legal action against Cyprus over the country’s citizenship-through-investment scheme.
Reynders also called for changes throughout Europe to citizenship-through-investment schemes and said he preferred to completely phase them out.
His comments come after Al Jazeera’s Investigative Unit published The Cyprus Papers, a collection of leaked documents that showed Cyprus sold passports to criminals, fugitives and people considered to be at high risk of corruption.
Those documents, consisting of almost 1,500 passport applications containing more than 2,400 names, showed Cyprus failed to conduct due diligence on dozens of cases, allowing criminals and people under international sanctions to buy citizenship for the EU-member state.
Reynders told Al Jazeera he asked the legal department of the European Justice Commission “to analyse if it is possible in the legal framework that we have now to start an infringement proceeding or to come with a legislative proposal”.
“It is the task of the justice system in Cyprus to analyse the situation, and if it is possible for the Cypriot authorities to revoke the nationality.”
Reynders also focused on the importance of collaboration between EU member states, calling for more information-sharing between supranational authorities.
“We want to have clear information about the different people asking for nationality with a clear exchange of information with Europol and other kinds of institutions at the European level.”
Cypriot response
On Wednesday, the Cypriot government also responded to Al Jazeera’s revelations, calling the reporting “propaganda, not journalism”.
Nouris said an investigation was continuing into the source of the leaked documents Al Jazeera obtained.
‘Time is of the essence’
In a response to Reynders’ comments, global anti-corruption NGO Transparency International welcomed his suggestions but implored the EU to make haste with its response.
“The Cyprus Papers show that it’s not just about a few bad apples and the occasional lapses of judgement. This is a systemic problem. The only way forward is for Cyprus to suspend the scheme, revoke the passports in question, and open investigations to establish accountabilities for the apparent abuse,” Laure Brillaud, Transparency’s senior policy officer, told Al Jazeera.
However, Brillaud also said it was not the first time the EU proposed changes to the programmes.
“The EU must waste no more time, initiate infringement proceedings against Cyprus, and potentially other countries that sell EU citizenship, for violating the principle of sincere cooperation between the member states.
“What we need to see from the EU is legislative proposals to fundamentally reform these schemes or a road map for ending risky golden visa programmes.”
https://cypriumnews.com/2020/08/24/what-are-the-cyprus-papers/
https://cypriumnews.com/2020/08/26/cyprus-cashes-in-as-haven-for-elites-fearful-of-home-countries/
https://cypriumnews.com/2020/08/24/cyprus-sold-passports-to-criminals-and-fugitives/
https://cypriumnews.com/2020/08/24/south-cyprus-sold-passports-to-politically-exposed-persons/
https://cypriumnews.com/2020/08/25/how-rich-russians-turned-cyprus-into-moscow-on-the-med/
