The main question of recent days for wealthy citizens around the world is whether they should rush to invest in European countries in order to have time to get «Golden Visas» while such an opportunity still exists.
What is waiting for this investment instrument in general and how will the Spanish government react to it?
Many members of the European Parliament have campaigned for the abolition of such a visa regime since 2014 against the background of the events that took place in Ukraine, the annexation of Crimea to Russia and the role of the latter in the ongoing events.
However, it is only now that the voices of supporters of the ban have been heard and massively supported by other members of the European Union.
On Wednesday, March 9, 2022, the European Parliament called for the phasing out of this type of visa for wealthy citizens on the territory of all member states of the Union.
The subsequent resolution on a complete ban on such investment incentives for investors was approved by 595 votes in favor. 12 votes were against and 74 abstained.
The market for «Golden visas» in Europe has been growing rapidly since 2008, when the financial crisis hit the world. Each country tried to find its own methods of attracting large investors' money into its own economy.
Each state offered its own schemes for getting such visas, differing in the conditions for obtaining and the number of financial investments. Thus, a «Golden visa» in Latvia could be obtained for an investment of 60,000 euros, while in the Netherlands they already demanded 1.25 million euros.
Spain was among the 12 EU countries that granted such visas for investment, along with the Netherlands and Latvia mentioned above, as well as countries such as Portugal, Greece, Ireland and Cyprus.
According to the European Parliament, from 2011 to 2019, the total amount of funds raised through such visa regimes exceeded 21.4 billion euros.
42,180 citizenships or long-term resident visas were issued. More than 132,000 people, one way or another, have become beneficiaries of such a policy, including family members of those who applied for a «Golden Visa».
Spain introduced this investment promotion in 2013. Wealthy foreigners could get a visa if they invested 500,000 euros in real estate or in other sectors of the country's economy.
From 2013 to 2020, Spain approved 24,500 applications for a «Golden Visa» for investors and their family members. This number includes both the cases of the initial issuance of a visa and the renewal of the validity period.
The first three places among the applicants were taken by citizens:
- China (8,287 people);
- Europe (6,185 people);
- Ukraine (1,011 people).
The main motivation of the current decision of the European Parliament is the fight against the use of such programs as a «back door» for «dirty money», including their «laundering».
It is also no secret that such a swift and tough decision is taking place against the background of the armed conflict between Ukraine and Russia, as well as unprecedented sanctions by Western countries against the latter. Especially in relation to its wealthiest representatives.
Spain has not yet made any statement on the decision of the European Parliament. It is known, however, that the ban on "Golden Visas" only for Russian citizens will cost Spain one billion euros of investment annually.