Moldova CIP Moratorium Likely to Last Four Months

An article in Moldovan news site UniMedia says the government has tabled a draft law that would subject the country’s CIP to a four-month moratorium.

“Until the final decision on the [CIP] has been made, the draft law on the establishment of the moratorium on the granting of citizenship of the Republic of Moldova under the terms of Article 17 (1 *) and (l 2) of the Moldovan Citizenship Law no.1024 / 2000 is aimed at stopping the reception of new requests for citizenship of the Republic of Moldova,” reads the article.

The same publication further posits that all applications filed before July 1st “will be processed in full”.

Henley & Partners, one of the program’s concessionaires, stated the following after a request for comment:

Currently, there are 2 independent legislative initiatives:

1. Draft Law to amend the Law on citizenship, Law on investments in entrepreneurial activity and Law on foreign status of foreigners (i.e. a law to amend multiple laws) and cancel the provisions related to MCBI (i.e. cancellation of MCBI);
2. Draft Law to institute a moratorium on submission of new MCBI applications;

Law no. 1 was initiated by a group of members of the Parliament, members of ACUM, and passed the 1^st reading. The 2^nd reading is not yet planned, because the draft is subject to the opinion of the Government.

Law no. 2 was initiated by the Ministry of Economy, i.e. the Government, was approved by the Government, and is subject to vote in the Parliament in the 1^st and 2^nd reading.

Any legal initiative (whether submitted by a group of members of the Parliament or by the Government) can be withdrawn only by the authors, or can be rejected by the Parliament (whether in the 1^st or the 2^nd reading).

It is likely but not self-evident that after the moratorium, Law no. 1 will be withdrawn.

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