Some political parties have reversed their position on the “golden passports” issue

In March 2020, a group of MPs of the MRF, GERB, and United Patriots parties essentially saved the “golden passports” scheme by proposing a symbolic tightening of the conditions for acquiring Bulgarian citizenship through investments https://bit.ly/3BcAmPX. In consequence, the problematic passages on obtaining citizenship in exchange for investments remained in the final version of the law, despite the European Commission’s criticism that the issuing of “golden passports” in Bulgaria endangers European security.

Suddenly, in January 2022, the MRF introduced a new bill to amend the legislation that was in stark contrast with their previous position: they proposed to completely abolish the option of obtaining citizenship through investments.

Is the MRF’s unexpected change of heart related to the sanctions imposed in 2021 by the US Treasury Department on Delyan Peevski for running a scheme for soliciting bribes from foreigners in exchange for obtaining Bulgarian identity documents? https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/jy0208

We are taking this opportunity to highlight another loophole in the Bulgarian Citizenship Act (BCA) — besides the “golden passports” scheme — that the MPs seem to have omitted. It concerns Art. 16 of the BCA which provides for the granting of Bulgarian citizenship to foreigners on account of “exceptional contributions to the Republic of Bulgaria in the sphere of economics, science, technology, culture or sport.”

It was under this procedure that the Russian oligarch Sergey Adoniev obtained Bulgarian citizenship in 2008, despite having been convicted by US courts of money laundering, fraud and violating a trade embargo. The Adoniev case revealed serious gaps in the State Agency for National Security’s procedure for conducting background checks on candidates for citizenship, as well as lack of adequate mechanisms to prevent abuse of power and trade in influence.

Thanks to ACF’s investigation and a number of alerts coming from Bulgarian and partner agencies, Adoniev was stripped of his citizenship in 2018, only days before this would have become impossible. Read more information on the case here.

In 2019, ACF submitted a position paper with recommendations on how to improve the legislation to the President, the Minister of Justice and the Chairman of SANS. Read the position paper here.

We are appealing to the MPs of the 47th National Assembly to address this additional issue in the current version of the law.