UGLOBAL . COM 15
UNCERTAINTY IN THE EUROPEAN PERMANENT RESIDENCY MARKET
BY LASZLO KISS
The European RBI market is going through some major changes . Many countries are either closing their programs or adjusting them significantly , creating uncertainty for foreign investors worldwide .
What is happening to the European residency-byinvestment ( RBI ) market ? Moreover , how , and why is Europe trying to cancel all the citizenship schemes worldwide ?
The European RBI market is going through some major changes . Many countries are either closing their programs or adjusting them significantly .
The Netherlands closed its program , Portugal overhauled the golden visa , and Greece doubled the costs . Meanwhile , the European Union ( EU ) Commission wants to ban citizenship programs and close all the residency-by-investment solutions in the EU .
EUROPEAN POLITICAL AVERSIONS TO THE IMMIGRATION PROGRAMS
Europe is struggling with enforcing proper and legal forms of immigration . Refugees , illegal immigrants , legal job seekers , students , entrepreneurs , and wealthy people , among others , need proper legislation and clear paths into Europe . Nearly all European nations need new investments and skilled people . During the 2010s , there were 21 " residency or citizenship by investment programs " ( RCBI ) to attract wealthy people from third countries to most of the EU Member States .
However , the European Union ' s legislators have tried to ban investors immigration solutions since their first appearance . In March 2022 , the European Parliament proposed to ban all citizenship by investment programs until 2025 and create a common and unified regulation for the RBI schemes . 1 To understand the power behind these proposals , there is no functioning and clear citizenship by investment program in the Union and Europe in 2023 , two years before the deadline , except in Malta .
The most recent development from Brussels is that the EU started to punish all sovereign third countries with passport solutions . The European Commission is now deciding to revoke the right of visa-free travel from the citizens of the CBI