08/11/2022 (Agence Europe) – The Council of the EU decided on Tuesday 8 November to fully suspend the visa waiver agreement with Vanuatu because of the risks posed by its investor citizenship programmes (golden passports). A partial suspension of the agreement had already been agreed in March. Since then, “the country has failed to engage meaningfully and the circumstances that led to the temporary suspension still persist”. The EU concluded that these programmes have “serious shortcomings which could pose a risk to the EU, in particular because of the extremely low rejection rate, which raises doubts about the reliability of checks, the absence of physical presence or residence requirements, the short processing times or the granting of citizenship to applicants who are in Interpol’s databases”. The decision will apply in February 2023. (SP)