Malta · Citizenship by investment
Citizenship by Naturalisation for Exceptional Services by Direct Investment
The programme was struck down by the CJEU (Grand Chamber) in Case C-181/23, European Commission v Republic of Malta, 29 April 2025. Malta repealed the investment route through the Maltese Citizenship (Amendment) Act, Act XXI of 2025, published and in force 24 July 2025. No new applications are being accepted. This was the last direct citizenship-by-investment programme in the European Union.
This is the single most consequential citizenship ruling in EU history. The Court held that a member state's grant of nationality, traditionally an exclusive sovereign competence, is constrained by EU law where it commercialises Union citizenship. Every remaining EU-adjacent passport pitch should now be read against it. Any adviser still marketing a Maltese passport route in 2026 is selling something that does not exist.
Qualifying routes
Route abolished 24 July 2025.
Route abolished 24 July 2025.
The facts
- Minimum investment
- €600k
- Total landed cost
- Historically, the route required a contribution of EUR 600k–750k plus a EUR 10k philanthropic donation, along with a property purchase from EUR 700k or rent from EUR 16k per year held for five years. Add due diligence and agent fees, and the all-in cost for a single applicant ran roughly EUR 900k–1.2m. This is academic only. The route no longer exists.
- Route type
- Citizenship by investment
- Timeline
- 1–3 years (Historic. It used 12- or 36-month residence tiers.)
- Physical presence
- Historically, the physical presence required was minimal. The CJEU noted that applicants needed only two physical appearances in Malta, a point that was central to its finding that no genuine link to the country existed.
- Family
- SpouseChildren under 29 could be included as dependentsParents and grandparents over 55 could be included as dependents
- Permanent residency
- Not applicable. The programme conferred citizenship directly.
- Citizenship
- Closed
- Language test
- None was required.
- Dual citizenship
- Permitted
- Requirements
- no longer applicable
- The programme is gone. Treat any 2026 marketing that offers Malta citizenship by investment, MEIN, or a last window as a red flag. Several intermediaries kept advertising it after 24 July 2025.
- The CJEU's reasoning matters well beyond Malta. Granting nationality for predetermined payments without a genuine prior link breaches Article 20 TFEU and the Article 4(3) TEU duty of sincere cooperation. That is precedent that constrains any future EU scheme.
- Existing Maltese citizens naturalised under the scheme are not stripped of citizenship by the judgment itself. But the Court's language about mutual trust means holders should expect elevated scrutiny at banks and in onboarding for years to come.
- The Court expressly rejected Malta's argument that only general and systematic breaches engage EU law. That narrows the defence available to any successor scheme.