An event for Elite Brits to get a golden passport

Got money to spare, travel the world; got more money to spare get a citizenship to another land. A five-star hotel in London hosted a ‘global citizenship conference’, one of a kind event where elite British citizens were introduced with the idea of getting Euro citizenship or a golden passport in a trade-off for about $100,000. The event was said to be attended by about 300 Uber-rich and their advisors.

 Among the ones who took to stage offering this lucrative deal at London’s Rosewood hotel were the prime ministers of Albania, St Lucia and Montenegro, a Maltese minister, an ambassador from Antigua and Barbuda, and representatives from Cyprus.

 Allen Chastanet, the prime minister of the Caribbean island of St Lucia gave the logic behind the scheme, telling the audience his country’s core economic agenda was “going after high net-worth individuals and giving them a comfortable place to live”.

He added that in exchange for the contribution of a $100,000 (£78,000) towards the ‘national economic fund’ applicants would be granted St Lucian citizenship within three months. In addition to it, they would be granted a “golden passport” giving them a free pass to travel to 145 countries (where the visa is not required), including the UK, the European Union’s Schengen Area, Hong Kong, and Singapore.

 Věra Jourová, the incoming European Commission vice-president, raised grave concerns about how it could be misused. Jourova called the citizenship sale a  “dangerous”, “problematic” and “unfair” affair.

 Jourova said: “The citizenship schemes raise a number of concerns. The granting of citizenship poses a serious security risk because it gives beneficiaries all the rights of EU citizens and allows them to move freely throughout the union. The EU must not become a safe haven for criminals, corruption and dirty money.

 “While we cannot ban these schemes on the EU level due to lack of competence, we want more transparency on how nationality is granted and more co-operation between member states. There should be no weak link in the EU, where people could shop around for the most lenient scheme.”