The economic citizenship program violates EU law and poses risks to security, money laundering, tax evasion, terrorist financing, corruption and organised crime, the EC's progress report states, which is why it recommends abolishing the legal basis for its reintroduction. The EC says that 1.282 people were granted economic citizenship last year, based on applications left over from the economic citizenship program. They also suggest who should be stripped of their economic citizenship.
"709 are citizens of the Russian Federation, 42 citizens of Belarus and 29 citizens of Saudi Arabia. Montenegro should conduct all necessary security checks for the remaining citizenship applications under this program and revoke citizenship from persons who have acquired it and are subject to international restrictive measures," the EC report states.
Montenegro ended its economic citizenship program in 2022. The ruling PES party says it will follow EU rules regarding economic citizenship.
"The economic citizenship program is no longer active for Montenegro... The European Court of Justice had a ruling regarding the state of Malta, they expressed a clear position on this at the court level and we will fully follow EU policy in this field," said Vasilije Čarapić, a PES MP.
The opposition today did not want to comment on the EC recommendations on economic citizenship, which the Duško Marković government introduced in November 2018 as an economic interest of Montenegro. At the end of last year, the Milojko Spajić government announced that over two thousand foreigners from 73 countries had purchased Montenegrin citizenship based on an investment of 250 million euros and payment of fees of 74 million euros.
According to a new report, the EC notes that limited progress has been made in improving border controls, but marks the introduction of a visa-free regime in December 2024 for Bahrain, Uzbekistan and Saudi Arabia as a significant setback.
"By adding these countries, Montenegro has significantly regressed in its alignment with the EU visa policy. However, in October, Montenegro abolished the visa-free regime with four countries: Kuwait, Egypt, Armenia and Uzbekistan," the EC report states.
The EU expects Montenegro to terminate visa-free agreements with countries whose citizens require a visa to enter the EU, especially with countries that pose a risk of irregular migration or a security risk to the EU.
"Montenegro's visa policy is not fully aligned with EU policy, as the list of countries exempted from visas by Montenegro still differs from the EU list by nine countries. Full alignment with the EU list of countries requiring visas is the final criterion for closing Chapter 24," the report states.
Of the nine countries on the EU list requiring visas, Montenegro has permanently exempted eight: Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Belarus, China, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Turkey. In addition, Kazakhstan has a seasonal exemption. However, visas have been introduced for Turkish citizens following the recent events in Zabjelo, for which Azerbaijanis are suspected. Brussels is also warning about legal migration channels, in light of Montenegro's negotiations with Bangladesh, Pakistan and Nepal on labor mobility. They say that our country must develop a system that will distinguish labor migration from people smuggling.
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