North Macedonia to Tweak Investment-for-Citizenship Rules, But EU Concerns Remain

The European Union has criticised proposed changes to North Macedonia’s Law on Citizenship, saying they fail to go far enough in abolishing a ‘golden passport’ scheme that critics say is widely abused. In June, the government in Skopje proposed amendments that it said would tighten citizenship rules and satisfy EU concerns over its ‘golden passport’ scheme. The proposal scraps a threshold of 400,000 euros in investment in exchange for citizenship, as well as a requirement that the person hires 10 people. However, authorities will still be able to issue citizenship to individuals deemed of special interest to North Macedonia, whether that interest be, for example, economic, cultural, or sporting, as many other countries around the world do, including in the EU. Subscribe to Balkan Insight Premium to read the full article. Please login to your account below if you are already a Premium Subscriber. Buy Premium Subscription Our Premium Service gives you full access to all content published on BalkanInsight.com, including analyses, investigations, comments, interviews and more. Choose your subscription today and get unparalleled in-depth coverage of the Southern and Eastern Europe. Buy Premium Subscription If you have trouble logging in or any other questions regarding you account, please contact us