Portugal's parliament has rejected proposals to end or expand its golden visa regime in response to moves by the parties Bloco de Esquerda, the Portuguese Communist Party and PAN (People, Animals, Nature) and right wing party Chega.
Chega had proposed to introduce €250,000 capital transfer option (currently €1m) for investment in companies in the agriculture, research and development, tourism or environment.
This latest development comes after the European Parliament voted for "new common rules to address the many problems linked to ‘citizenship/residence by investment' schemes" in March this year.
Socialist deputy Pedro Anastácio said in the debate that "the way and the time is one of evaluation" about a "successful legal amendment that safeguarded the dimensions that are important in this regime".
The PS parliamentarian, the party that voted against all these proposals, argued that "the last legal change made to the regime responded adequately to the housing dimension, allowing to safeguard and maintain the regime's dimension".
Anastácio further said the changes represent "something that is also important and fundamental for the country, which is the promotion of productive investment, job creation, investment in urban requalification, cultural heritage and in activities of high environmental or social value", adding that "it is necessary to assess the effects after the introduction of this change" in order to assess whether the desired balance has been achieved.
The parliament did however set in motion a further proposal to allow the online portal to resume accepting new golden visa applications.
