Almost 60 Moldovans Receive Citizenship of the EU State Daily

In 2022, almost one million people were granted citizenship of an EU Member State, of which more than 2% were Moldovan citizens. The increase due to new citizens is 0.2% compared to the EU population of about 450 million people. This is the highest number of citizenships granted by EU states in a single year, with some 826,800 people granted citizenship in 2021, 730,700 in 2020 and 706,400 in 2019. The figures show an increase of 19.7% on the previous year, writes the website Schengenvisainfo, which processed the Eurostat data. Italy is at the top of the list with a share of 22% of the total number of new citizens 87% of those who obtained citizenship of an EU country in 2022 were former third-country nationals, while the rest belonged to another EU country, mainly Romania. At the same time, Romania also had the highest naturalisation rate among EU countries. Romania had the highest naturalization rate among EU countries in 2022, with 26.8 citizens per 100 foreign residents. Sweden had a rate of 10.6, followed by the Netherlands with 4.4 and Italy with 4.2. When it comes to the EU country that has welcomed the most of new citizens in 2022, Italy tops the list with a share of 22% of the total. Spain is next with 18% of the total, followed by Germany with 17%. These three countries faced the largest year-on-year growth, while France, the Netherlands and Portugal saw the largest declines. Moroccans were the main beneficiaries of EU citizenship in 2022 As has been the case for many years, Moroccans also top the list of citizens welcomed to the EU in 2022, with 112,700 Moroccan citizens becoming new EU citizens, or 11.3% of the total. Recently published figures show that Spain granted 49.2% of the total number of nationalities obtained by Moroccans, with Italy in second place (27.5%). France comes next (14.3%), followed by Belgium (4.3%). Only 4.7% of Moroccans obtained citizenship in other EU countries. Natives from Morocco are followed by those from Syria with 90,400 citizens (the number has tripled since 2019), Albania with 50,300, Romania with 37,700 and Turkey with 29,700. Ukraine is in sixth place with 29,300 citizens, followed by Brazil with 25,900 and India with 24,100. Moldovans are among the top 10 nationalities obtaining citizenship of an EU country Eurostat data reveal that in 2022, about 21,600 Moldovans obtained citizenship of the EU state, ranking 9th in this rating. The data show that daily almost 60 Moldovans obtained EU citizenship. This is the first time Moldovans are in the top 10, and SchengenVisaInfo does not provide data for other years so that a comparison can be made. The published data indicate that Romania granted 54.3% of the total number of citizenships obtained by Moldovans, with Italy in second place (34.9%). Spain follows with 4.9% and France with 1.6%. Only 4.4% of Moldovans obtained citizenship in other EU countries. The statistics also show that more than 20,000 Russians have become EU citizens despite the sanctions imposed by the EU and its member states on Russian citizens since the start of the invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022. Over the whole year, 20.2 thousand Russian citizens obtained EU citizenship, 23.3% of them in Germany, 12% in France, 10.2% in Finland and 8.6% in Spain. Another 46% obtained citizenship of other EU countries. There is an increase of 16.7% compared to 2021, when 17,300 Russians were granted EU citizenship, 45% of them in Germany and France.