Casablanca- According to news outlet Medias 24, the current economic crisis is forcing more and more European countries to ease the conditions for granting residence permits, and even citizenship, in exchange for imported investments or high sums of money.
This is reportedly the case in European countries such as Malta, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Ireland and Cyprus. The list of European countries which have decided to monetize their nationality or residence permits is gradually expanding.
For instance, the republic of Malta has set the price of its citizenship for non-European citizens at 650,000 Euros.
Spain, Morocco’s closest European neighbor, decided to offer its citizenship to any foreigner who buys property costing at least 500,000 Euros or who acquires treasury bills valued at 2 million Euros. By doing so, Spain aims to pull the Spanish real estate market out of its current decline.
Portugal for its part offers legal residence to foreigners in exchange for buying property for 500,000 Euros or for creating 30 jobs with a capital of 1 million Euros in a Portuguese bank.
Surprisingly, the European Union did not disapprove of the practice, stating that all countries constituting the EU are free to determine conditions for granting their nationalities to foreigners.
While some of the European countries undergoing acute economic crises have opened doors to all foreigners interested in acquiring their nationalities in exchange of financial input, Western countries, such the U.S. and Canada, intend to grant their nationalities only to potential key investors from the Middle East, Russia, and China.
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