German Political Party Criticises Montenegro Citizenship Plan
Text by Balkan Insight
The comments by the German Christian Democratic Union party, CSU, came on Tuesday hours after the Montenegrin government said business people who invest in its country or pay the government 500,000 euros could be awarded citizenship.
CSU expert for internal politics, Stephan Mayer, said the "economic citizenship" programme was an “open provocation of the EU and the EU’s integration policy for Western Balkan countries”, Serbian public broadcaster, RTS, reported.
“If an investment of 500,000 EUR would really be the condition for getting Montenegrin citizenship, than the EU should immediately require that Montenegrin citizens be removed from the White Schengen list,” he said.
Montenegrin opposition parties also criticised the plan, saying it risked Montenegro becoming an asylum for criminals, according to the RTS report.
The leader of Movement for change party, PZP, Nebojsa Medojevic, said the programme would fail to bring foreign investment into the country and would attract foreign tycoons and corrupt politicians.
Government spokesperson Olivera Djukanovic earlier announced the plan, saying “economic citizenship will allow foreign business people, who invest in Montenegro or make a payment to the government of 500,000 EUR, to apply for Montenegrin citizenship".
She said the programme, designed to attract large companies with new technologies and knowledge, complied with EU rules insisting on clear financial flows and the EU had left the questions of citizenship to the jurisdiction of national governments.
“With this programme we hope to attract additional investors, individuals and capital in Montrenegro, which will help us to build a positive image of our country in the financial world,” she said.
She said the decision did not mean Montenegro lacked foreign investment, but the programme would add an additional competitive advantage to Montenegro's ability to attract investors.
The government said in a statement it would co-operate with leading law firms and consulting companies to ensure that people applying would have a respectable background and money which could contribute to the development of the Montenegrin economy.
“Every request will be controlled by the independent consulting company, our Ministry of finance and Ministry of interior,” Djukanovic said.
This article is courtesy of Balkan Insight, the online publication of the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, which contains analytical reports, in-depth analyses and investigations and news items from throughout the region covering major challenges of the political, social and economic transition in the Balkans.
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