Chinese investors, beware: EU vows to take aim at ‘golden visas’ programmes

For years, wealthy Chinese have made investments in Cyprus and Malta in exchange for European Union passports – so-called golden visa transactions. Now, Brussels wants to end the practice. The call to stop the policy came from the very top of the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, when President Ursula von der Leyen voiced it during her first state-of-the-union speech earlier this month. “European values are not for sale,” she said. “The breaches of the rule of law cannot be tolerated. I will continue to defend it and the integrity of our European institutions – be it about the primacy of European law, the freedom of the press, the independence of the judiciary or the sale of golden passports,” she said.

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