Brussels: The European Commission proposes on Wednesday the suspension of a visa-free travel agreement with the Pacific Islands Vanuatu because the scheme offers a passport to rich foreigners.
If the proposal is supported by the EU countries, it will be the first time the European Union imposes sanctions in a country to run the “Golden Passport” scheme, which has been repeatedly warned by the commission can pose a security risk and money laundering.
Other countries, including Eastern European countries are monitored.
“The Commission has concluded that Vanuatu’s citizenship scheme presents serious deficiencies and security failures,” he said in a statement.
Under the scheme, foreigners can obtain citizenship and passport Vanuatu for a minimum investment for $ 130,000.
It in turn gave them visa-free access to the EU, under the country’s neglecting agreement with 27 countries’ blocks.
The Commission has proposed to suspend Visma-free journey for all Vanuatu passport holders released since May 2015 when the investor program began operating earnestly in this country.
The moratorium will be appointed if the program is changed correctly.
The European Union executive said the scheme was considered risky because basically accepting all applicants and not enough to filter it, although some appeared in the interpol security database.
Vanuatu Embassy in Brussels is not immediately available for comments.
The Commission said that it was a monitoring country with visa-free access to the EU which was effectively operating or planning to regulate investor citizenship schemes, including the Caribbean and the Pacific Islands and Eastern European countries Montenegro, Albania and Moldova.
Most of the EU countries have their own schemes that offer passports or visas to rich foreigners, but the Commission considers most of them in line with the European Union rules, with the exception of programs founded by Cyprus and Malta.
Both countries face legal challenges from Brussels which require them to change the program or stop running it to avoid the risk of fine.