The government in the technical mandate of Dritan Abazović gave up on the new model of extending the economic citizenship program, according to which the money from the project would be directed exclusively to pay back the Chinese loan for the highway. The reason, according to the sources, is that the prime minister and ministers were clearly warned in contacts with the highest representatives of the European Commission that such a model, following the example of Malta, is absolutely unacceptable and would have negative consequences for the EU integration process.
The European Union sued Malta because of the “golden passport” model. The commission said it believes the scheme, which allows for the effective purchase of Maltese and thus EU citizenship through defined payments or investments, is a breach of EU law. The controversial project was officially completed on December 31, but there is skepticism among the public, Brussels and Washington about the sincerity of such an announcement, due to the large number of applications.
We received a warning that even that proposal is not acceptable, so there is nothing that would resemble the previous model. There is no room for innovative models due to the opposition of the EC.
According to the new model, which was rejected by Brussels, the Government, the Prime Minister and the Ministry of Finance, the sale of the so-called of golden passports would undergo changes in terms of transferring their money to a bank account, and the collected funds would be, as they claim, directed to the Chinese Exim Bank. Abazović’s government, in its technical mandate, plans to grant hundreds more honorary citizenships in the next few months, even though that controversial project ended on December 31st, 2022.
The procedure is slow. All applications that have been submitted are being processed.
The basis for the award is that the project has not been canceled but completed, so there are still 240 applications in the procedure, for 240 applicants and 547 family members who submitted applications by December 31st last year.
From the beginning of July 2022 until the end of last year, 398 decisions were made on acquiring Montenegrin citizenship by admission based on economic citizenship, namely 118 decisions for applicants and 280 decisions for their family members.
This is stated in the document published by the Government, in which it is written that the applications refer to those submitted to the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the period before July 1, 2022. As stated in the document published by the Government in that period, the Investment Agency of Montenegro approved 277 applications, while for the mentioned period licensed agents for the assessment of international suitability approved 121 applications.
In the reporting period to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, in accordance with Article 12 of the Law on Montenegrin Citizenship and the Decision on the criteria, method and procedure for selecting persons who can acquire Montenegrin citizenship by admission for the implementation of a special investment program of special importance for the economic and economic interest of Montenegro , the Prime Minister submitted 117 proposals (for 117 applicants and 283 family members) – the document states.
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