CGO: More than 300 honorary citizenships since the vote of no confidence in the Government

The Center for Civic Education (CGO) expressed concern about the scope of the allocation of the so-called honorary citizenships by the Government of Dritan Abazović in the technical mandate, especially bearing in mind that, as they said, contrary to the recommendations of the European Commission (EC), the largest number of these citizenships are linked to the controversial Economic Citizenship Program.

The latest data that CGO received from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, in accordance with the Law on Free Access to Information, indicate that from August 31 to November 8 this year, the current government granted 296 new citizenships, of which 292 were at the proposal of the Prime Minister, and four at the suggestion of the President of the State, Milo Đukanović, announced Damir Suljević, an associate of the CGE programs.

For five citizenships, the state interest was not specified in the decisions, while for the other 287 it was explained that they were granted in accordance with the Economic Citizenship Program. The largest number of people who received citizenship in the mentioned period originated from Russia (110), followed by China (67) and the USA (24), said Suljević.

"With this cut, the number of citizenships granted on this discretionary basis increased to 1.072. Of that number, as many as 682 citizenships were granted in the period from the change of government, i.e. from December 28, 2020 to November 8, 2022, of which 363 during the term of the Government of Dritan Abazović, and of which the largest number since the vote of no confidence in that Government. More precisely, 61 citizenships during the full mandate of the Government of Abazović, and 302 citizenships, or over 80 percent, after August 19, 2022 and the loss of confidence in the Parliament of Montenegro, that is, in the technical mandate. The CGE notes that it does not have data from November 8 until today when it comes to this issue, and bearing in mind this dynamic, it can be assumed that this number is significantly higher," the statement added.

CGO reminds that the EC in its last Report for Montenegro for 2022 repeats earlier criticisms of the Economic Citizenship Program, stressing that the Government headed by Abazović, instead of entering the phase of shutting down that program, reduced the financial criteria, i.e. the bank guarantee by 2.5 million euros to one million euros, for admission under that program, but also added some other privileges to the already privileged applicants for economic citizenship.

"This program creates risks such as money laundering, tax evasion, terrorist financing, corruption and infiltration of organized crime and it should be stopped," says the EC in its general recommendations, as Suljević reminds. In the part where the issue is elaborated in detail, he points out that the message is even more decisive: "In its fourth and fifth report within the visa suspension mechanism, the EC recommended Montenegro to completely abolish the economic citizenship scheme as soon as possible." Montenegro still has not implemented this request".

The EC also warns, Suljević states, that "the visa policy of Montenegro is not fully harmonized with the EU policy" and that Montenegro "still has not terminated its Economic Citizenship Program, despite previous recommendations and obligations", from which, as he assessed, , it is clear that the Government is consciously questioning the abolition of the visa-free regime for the citizens of Montenegro and is ignoring serious warnings from the EC for the sake of certain particular interests.

"CGO, for the sake of transparency of this issue and full availability of information for all interested parties, will publish the full names and details of all those who have received citizenship by the privileged procedure so far," it concludes.