Renouncing Moldovan citizenship could be more difficult

Only Moldovan citizens that are living abroad will be able to give up the Moldovan citizenship. The Government approved at this week’s sitting a bill to amend and supplement the Law on Moldovan nationality, which posts restrictions on the renunciation of the Moldovan citizenship. According to an informative note accompanying the bill and signed by Minister of Information Development Vladimir Molojen, lately it was registered a significant increase in the number of persons who renounce the Moldovan nationality, compared to the number of those who apply for it. To reduce the number of persons who give up the Moldovan citizenship, the Government proposed amending articles 22, 28, 33 and 37 of the mentioned Law, which provide the conditions of submitting the application for renouncing the Moldovan citizenship. These amendments are to be approved by the Parliament. According to the European Convention on Nationality of 1997 (art.8), an application could be submitted only by persons that reside legally abroad. Experts have warned about the risk of Moldova’s depopulation, as Romanian authorities give a figure of nearly 800,000 applications from Moldovan citizens asking for granting and regaining Romanian citizenship. Taking into account that a lot of applications come from families, the number of applicants for Romanian citizenship could reach one million persons.