Opinion of Advocate General Collins delivered on 4 October 2024, Case C-181/23, European Commission v Republic of Malta

Opinion of Advocate General Collins of 4 Oct 2024 in C-181/23 Commission v Malta (EUR-Lex XHTML). Legal framework (Maltese Citizenship Act art. 10, 2020 Act and 2020 Regulations: EUR 600,000/750,000 contribution, EUR 10,000 deposit, EUR 700,000 property or EUR 16,000 rent, EUR 10,000 donation, 36 months or 12 months with EUR 150,000 more, EUR 50,000 per dependant, cap of 400 a year and 1,500 in total; 2014 IIP cap of 1,800), pre-litigation steps, parties' arguments, analysis and the proposal to dismiss the action. The scheme terms repeat L.N. 437 of 2020 and are already in program_terms; the opinion event is already recorded under this id. One statement not recorded, for decision: Malta's pleading (point 125 of the text) that "a rate of refusal of approximately one third of all admissible applications" shows the scheme is not automatic; it is a party's claim in words with no period, so it was not turned into a cbi_rejection_rate number. The AG gives the filing date as 22 March 2023 (the judgment says 21 March). Only Malta is covered. Rules restated from other sources are now recorded from this document too (decision 8).