Malta’s Merit-Based Citizenship Evolution: From Golden Passports to Genuine Contribution
The CJEU Ruling That Changed Everything
On April 29, 2025, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) delivered a decisive blow to citizenship-for-investment schemes across Europe. In Commission v Malta (Case C-181/23), the Grand Chamber unanimously ruled that Malta’s Citizenship by Investment program violated fundamental EU law principles, declaring that such schemes “amount to the commercialisation of the granting of the status of national of a Member State and, by extension, Union citizenship.”
The Court found that Malta’s program breached Article 20 TFEU (Union citizenship) and Article 4(3) TEU (principle of sincere cooperation) by allowing individuals to acquire EU citizenship through predetermined financial contributions without establishing genuine connections to Malta. The judgment established a clear precedent: “acquiring citizenship is not a business transaction” and EU member states cannot commodify European citizenship.
This ruling effectively ended the last formal investment-based citizenship scheme within the European Union, following similar suspensions in Cyprus (2020) and Bulgaria (2022).
Malta’s Strategic Response: Reinforcing Merit-Based Naturalization
Rather than simply terminating its citizenship program, Malta responded strategically by strengthening its existing framework for merit-based naturalization. While the initial response involved closing the investment route immediately, Malta’s comprehensive legislative reform came through a bill tabled on June 30, 2025, with implementing regulations published later in 2025.
The reformed system builds upon Malta’s existing legal provisions for citizenship by exceptional services, which have been available since 2017 under Article 10(9) of the Maltese Citizenship Act. The 2025 amendments removed all transactional elements while reinforcing the merit-based pathway for genuinely exceptional individuals.
Legal Foundation and Framework
The current system operates under:
Primary Legislation: Article 10(9) of the Maltese Citizenship Act (Cap. 188), as amended by Act XXI of 2025
Implementing Regulations: Legal Notice 159 of 2025, amending the Granting of Citizenship for Exceptional Services Regulations
Key Principles:
- Non-transactional approach: Complete elimination of investment-based routes
- Merit-driven assessment: Recognition based solely on exceptional contributions
- Discretionary evaluation: Ministerial decisions based on independent expert recommendations
- EU law compliance: Framework directly addresses CJEU concerns about commercialized citizenship
Merit-Based Qualification Categories
The reformed program recognizes exceptional contributions across four primary domains:
Science and Research
Individuals who have made significant contributions to human knowledge or technological advancement, including:
- Peer-reviewed publications in high-impact journals
- Breakthrough research with practical applications
- Recognition through prestigious awards or fellowships
- Leadership of major research initiatives addressing global challenges
Entrepreneurship and Technology
Exceptional business leaders and innovators who demonstrate:
- Breakthrough inventions with patent protection
- Successful scaling of innovative enterprises
- Development of transformative technologies
- Creation of significant employment opportunities
- Measurable economic impact in target sectors
Culture, Arts, and Sports
Distinguished individuals who enhance Malta’s international reputation through:
- International recognition via awards or exhibitions
- Significant contributions to cultural preservation or innovation
- Outstanding athletic achievements representing excellence
- Creative works promoting cultural understanding
Philanthropy and Social Leadership
Leaders whose efforts create measurable positive impact:
- Establishment or leadership of significant charitable organizations
- Innovative approaches to addressing social challenges
- Substantial contributions to education or healthcare
- Leadership in humanitarian crisis response
Conclusion: A New Paradigm for Citizenship Policy
Malta’s evolution from investment-based to merit-based citizenship represents more than regulatory compliance – it signals a fundamental shift toward recognizing citizenship as a reflection of genuine connection and contribution rather than financial capacity.
The enhanced permanent residence programme demonstrates Malta’s continued commitment to attracting international residents and investors through legitimate, transparent pathways that comply with EU standards while serving national development objectives.
This transformation may well establish new international benchmarks for citizenship policy, showing how nations can simultaneously attract valuable human capital, maintain citizenship integrity, and comply with evolving legal standards in an interconnected world. Malta’s experience offers a compelling model for other jurisdictions seeking to balance global talent attraction with the fundamental values that underpin democratic citizenship in the 21st century.
The success of this transformation will ultimately be measured not in the number of citizenships granted, but in the quality of contributions made by new citizens to Malta’s social, cultural, and economic development – establishing citizenship as a partnership built on mutual benefit and genuine connection rather than mere transaction.
Robert Nogacki is a Polish attorney at law (radca prawny), the founder and managing partner of Kancelaria Prawna Skarbiec (Skarbiec Law Firm), which has operated continuously since 2006.
The law is equal for everyone, but the parties rarely are: on one side stands an organization with time, money, and lawyers, on the other a person with one business, one nest egg, and one life.
Clients rarely come to him with a legal problem. They come with a problem that also has a legal side: an audit that began with a single invoice, money entrusted to someone who has disappeared, a company that has to be passed on before it is too late. Most such matters are decided long before the first letter is written, in decisions made without asking and in deadlines nobody remembered. So he begins by asking how the client got here, not what the client should have done.
He advises entrepreneurs and families from more than a dozen countries, including those whose accounts the tax office has just seized and who do not know what to do tomorrow morning. He defends them in tax audits, customs and fiscal inspections, disputes with the tax authorities, and criminal tax proceedings. He represents victims of investment fraud and Ponzi schemes. He helps families set up family foundations and plan succession, so that a life’s work outlasts a single generation.
Not every case can be won. Every case can be run so that the client knows where they stand. Since 2006 he has represented the victims in the WGI case (Warszawska Grupa Inwestycyjna, the Warsaw Investment Group), one of the longest criminal cases in the history of the Polish financial market, because some things must not be left half finished, even when they take two decades. In the case of the collapsed cryptocurrency exchange Zonda (Zondacrypto, operated by BB Trade Estonia OÜ), he represents several hundred victims in the criminal investigation conducted by Poland’s National Prosecutor’s Office and in the Estonian bankruptcy proceedings.
Kancelaria Prawna Skarbiec is listed in the rankings of Poland’s largest tax advisory firms published by Dziennik Gazeta Prawna and Rzeczpospolita, and it is a four-time recipient (2015 to 2018) of the European Medal awarded by the Business Centre Club and the European Economic and Social Committee. Robert Nogacki publishes regularly, in the press and on the firm’s website, for people who have a problem rather than a law degree, because a legal opinion the client cannot understand protects only the lawyer.
He believes that the best legal advice is the kind that means the client never has to appear in court.
