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由于瓦努阿图投资者公民计划（“黄金护照”计划）带来的风险，理事会今天决定部分暂停与瓦努阿图的免签证协议。暂停2015年5月25日后通过投资公民计划取得的瓦努阿图护照的免签权，在本决定生效期间，此类护照的持有人将需要签证才能前往欧盟。（备注，对于此段英文的翻译，有不同的理解和翻译，另外一种翻译为：由于瓦努阿图投资者公民身份计划（黄金护照计划）带来的风险，委员会今天决定部分暂停与瓦努阿图的免签证协议。暂停只涉及持有2015年5月25日以后签发普通护照的瓦努阿图公民，瓦努阿图投资公民身份计划正是2015年5月25日开始生效的。在这个决定生效期间，此类护照持有人需要持有签证才能前往欧盟。）
基于对瓦努阿图投资者公民计划的仔细监测和评估，欧盟得出结论，它们存在严重缺陷，可能对欧盟构成风险，主要是由于：（1）极低的拒绝率，令人怀疑安全性和尽职调查的可靠性；（2）没有前往瓦努阿图的要求，亦没有居住要求，处理时间短，缺乏与申请人原籍国或居住国的信息交流；（3）向国际刑警组织数据库中列出的申请人授予公民身份；（4）部分成功申请者的原籍国，本来需要签证才能进入欧盟。
本决定现在将在官方公报上公布，并将在公布后两个月生效。根据以前所签署的免签证协议，本决定应在其生效前两个月通知对方。
自2015年以来，欧盟和瓦努阿图之间实施了免签证协议。该协议允许瓦努阿图公民免签证前往欧盟，在任何180天内停留最多90天。
近年来，瓦努阿图建立了更多的投资者公民计划，成功申请的人数有所增加。2017年，委员会开始调查这些计划，因为它们因其安全状况而引起了严重怀疑。委员会还就免签证协议中包含的暂停条款向瓦努阿图当局发出警告。尽管瓦努阿图当局承诺实施改革以解决问题，瓦努阿图政府在2021年4月采取了进一步措施，制定了新的公民计划，但其申请背景调查极宽松状况并无本质的改善（译者加）。
在这种情况下，委员会认为瓦努阿图实施的投资者计划违背了欧盟签证政策的目标，并于2022年1月12日提议部分暂停与瓦努阿图的免签证协议。
理事会关于部分暂停申请与瓦努阿图的短期签证豁免协议的决定»»
英文原文
The Council today decided to partially suspend the visa waiver agreement with Vanuatu due to the risks posed by its investor citizenship schemes (golden passport schemes). The suspension concerns only citizens of Vanuatu holding ordinary passports issued since 25 May 2015, when these Vanuatu investment citizenship schemes entered into force. At the end of this process, holders of such passports will need a visa to travel to the EU.
Based on careful monitoring and assessment of Vanuatu's investor citizenship schemes, the EU has concluded they present serious deficiencies which could pose a risk to the EU, notably due to:
◆the extremely low rejection rate, which raises doubts as to the reliability of the security and due diligence screening.
◆the absence of physical presence or residence requirements, short processing periods and lack of information exchange with applicants' countries of origin or residence.
◆the granting of citizenship to applicants listed in Interpol databases.
◆the nationalities of origin of successful applicants, which include several countries whose nationals require a visa to enter the EU.
The decision will now be published in the Official Journal and will enter into force two months after publication. Under the visa waiver agreement, the decision on suspension is to be notified to the other party no later than two months before its entry into force.
A visa waiver agreement has applied between the EU and Vanuatu since 2015. This agreement allows citizens of Vanuatu to travel to the EU without a visa for stays of up to 90 days in any 180-day period.
In recent years, Vanuatu has established additional investor citizenship schemes and the number of successful applicants has increased. In 2017, the Commission started investigating those schemes, since they raised serious doubts on account of their security failures. The Commission also warned the Vanuatu authorities about the suspension clauses contained in the visa waiver agreement. Despite the commitment by Vanuatu authorities to implement reforms in order to address concerns, in April 2021 the government of Vanuatu took further steps to set up a new citizenship programme.
In this context, the Commission considered that the investor schemes in place in Vanuatu went against the objectives of the EU visa policy, and on 12 January 2022 proposed the partial suspension of the visa waiver agreement with Vanuatu.