Albania Pushes for ‘Golden Passports’ Despite EU Criticism

An Albanian biometric passport. Photo courtesy: Bevis Fusha / Safran

After first changing the law on private-public partnerships (PPP) by adding the citizenship programmes to lists in which the law can be used, the Albanian government is now mulling hiring private firms to promote this scheme to foreigners.

The issue of granting Albanian citizenship to foreign investors, something that the government of Edi Rama has been mulling for about three years, came under the spotlight again recently, after a government decision, passed on July 29 but published on August 9, envisaged that forms of PPPs could also be used for this citizenship programme.

This raised a small storm on social media. Citizenship is granted only by decree of the head of state after previous checks by the Interior Ministry, but there are worries that what is in essence a security issue and state task could end up being privatised.

Bledar Skenderi, who runs the Agency of Drafting the Special Programs of Citizenship - which was created in 2020 - clarified for BIRN on Monday that they are only "exploring and planning to hire an international company which will promote Albanian passports". He said that the actual issuance of these citizenships and the required security checks would remain under state jurisdiction.

To date, government officials have rejected EU criticism over this issue as driven by prejudice, insisting that the programme will be free of corruption and with the sole purpose of attracting investors, not just those seeking an Albanian passport.

As Brussels noted in its latest progress report on Albania for 2021: "On citizenship rights, a provision of the Law on Citizenship adopted in July 2020 may still lead to the establishment of an investors'...