“Civis europeus, civis solidaris sum”

The ECJ judgment in European Commission v. Malta of 29 April 2025, which declared the
Maltese Citizenship by Investment (CBI) program as unlaw, was much anticipated and it
has not deceived the expectations as to its groundbreaking nature. Several commentators
criticized this judgment as a ruling on a subject not falling into the competence of the ECJ.
In reality, however, Member States, when granting national citizenship (and thereby Union
citizenship) are subject to restrictions. In this judgment, the ECJ specified some important
elements of these restrictions, thereby not relying, as proposed by the European Commission,
on the genuine link concept (tainted by a problematic reasoning of the ICJ in the
Nottebohm case of 1955) but on an expansive interpretation of the solidarity principle
and of the obligation of sincere cooperation according to Art. 4(3) TEU. In prohibiting
commodification of European citizenship, the ECJ underscores the ever-growing importance
of EU values as enshrined in Art. 2 TEU and thereby of a non-economic core of
European integration which has to be upheld to guarantee the further success of this
integration process.