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Residency by Investment

Will the EU End Golden Visas Entirely? Asked Anonymously

There seems to be increasing political pressure from Brussels on golden visas. Are these programmes going to disappear in the next few years, or will some survive?

Answered by
Adrian Sinclair
Senior Partner & Head of European Programmes
Member-state-level closures are likely to continue. Programme-by-programme: • Spain (closed 2025) and Portugal real-estate (closed 2023) reflect the strongest political signal so far. • Greece has tightened thresholds rather than closed — the political consensus is to keep the programme but make it less leveraged. • Malta MEIN and MPRP face ongoing EU Commission infringement scrutiny (case C-181/23 was the first ruling against Malta's CBI specifically). The MPRP residency programme is more durable politically. • Latvia, Hungary and others have already closed their schemes. The Commission can't force a member state to close an RBI programme directly — citizenship policy is a Member-State competence under Article 9 TEU. What it can do is restrict access to the rights citizenship confers (free movement, banking) and apply political pressure. Realistic two-year horizon: expect more tightening, fewer closures, and Caribbean programmes growing in relative importance.
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