The European Union has criticised proposed changes to North Macedonia’s Law on Citizenship, saying they fail to go far enough in abolishing a ‘golden passport’ scheme that critics say is widely abused.

In June, the government in Skopje proposed amendments that it said would tighten citizenship rules and satisfy EU concerns over its ‘golden passport’ scheme.

The proposal scraps a threshold of 400,000 euros in investment in exchange for citizenship, as well as a requirement that the person hires 10 people.

However, authorities will still be able to issue citizenship to individuals deemed of special interest to North Macedonia, whether that interest be, for example, economic, cultural, or sporting, as many other countries around the world do, including in the EU.