Montenegro is one of the countries that is under the close supervision of the European Commission (EC) due to the potential risks caused by economic citizenships, it was announced in the EC report on the monitoring of visa-free regimes.
– The Commission cooperated with all countries using investor citizenship schemes in order to prevent and mitigate possible security risks for the EU. At the moment, a number of visa-free third countries are under close scrutiny because of the potential risks posed by their citizenship-by-investment programs or plans to establish such schemes. This includes Albania, Montenegro and North Macedonia, as well as Vanuatu and some countries in the Caribbean.
In order to obtain Montenegrin economic citizenship, applicants are required to pay EUR 200,000 per application and invest at least EUR 450,000 in one of the projects in Podgorica or on the coast.
The document reminds that the Commission made explicit recommendations to effectively abolish or refrain from adopting citizenship schemes for investors.
– In addition, this issue is also discussed in the context of regular political dialogue, as well as at the meetings of the Subcommittee for Justice, Internal Affairs and Security organized within the Stabilization and Association Agreement between the EU and the countries concerned. In this regard, the EC welcomes Albania’s decision to suspend initiatives related to the establishment of an investor citizenship scheme, as well as the gradual abolition of such a scheme in Montenegro – the document states.
At the end of last year, Montenegro officially canceled the economic citizenship program and informed the European Union about it. However, there are still 787 requests in the procedure that are being resolved and which arouse the suspicion of the EU, but also of Washington, because the applicants are mainly citizens of Russia.
The EU has repeatedly called on Montenegro to abolish the economic citizenship program, due to risks such as money laundering, terrorist financing and organized crime.
The Government has repeatedly announced that the economic citizenship program has brought investments of 300 million EUR to Montenegro and an additional 70 million to the state coffers, from paid fees.
– We are looking for an alternative in order to continue a similar program in a way that would be acceptable to the EU, and which would satisfy the interests of Montenegro in terms of economic development – said Prime Minister Dritan Abazović.
On December 31st, there were still 787 requests in the procedure, which is why the Government assigned a special team to define the legal framework for dealing with those projects.
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