Dual citizenship is back on the agenda in Ukraine

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko submitted a legislative draft via emergency procedure recently that aims to punish dual citizenship. The draft was passed by the Verkhovna Rada on March 14th.

The presidential proposal would deprive Ukrainian citizenship to those who have willingly taken the citizenship of other countries. Thus, the directive does not apply to Russian-occupied Crimea and the residents of Luhansk and Donetsk who were granted Russian citizenship. Although current legislation does not prohibit or sanction dual citizenship, the Constitution of Ukraine only recognizes a single citizenship. The only exception is Article 19 of the Law on Citizenship, which says that persons holding another citizenship apart from Ukrainian cannot be nominated to serve in any official positions.

The draft submitted via emergency procedure would grant six months for dual citizens to denounce their other citizenship or face the sanction of being stripped of their Ukrainian citizenship. The proposal would also rescind the citizenship of expatriate Ukrainians, which could potentially affect millions of Ukrainians who are compelled to make a living abroad due to the economic hardships in Ukraine. In light of this, Ukrainians living in the EU or Canada could also be among those who lose their citizenship, not only the Hungarians, Bulgarians, Romanians and those belonging to other ethnic groups who received citizenship from their mother country via simplified nationalization.

Poroshenko’s draft would not only strip hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians of their citizenship, but it is also unconstitutional as the Ukrainian constitution states that no one has the right to divest citizens of their citizenship without their consent.

Transcarpathian Fidesz MEP Andrea Bocskor said: “The legislative proposal on citizenship creates additional conflicts and tensions in a country already afflicted by war and economic fallback. Moreover, it would mostly affect average people living in disadvantaged conditions, who are compelled to work in EU countries as a result of hardship and unemployment. Instead of generating additional tensions between the different layers and ethnic groups of the society, the Ukrainian leadership should strive to resolve real problems, like ending the crisis of Ukraine. The already existing law on the dual citizenship of functionaries should be enforced. Ukraine only profits from dual citizens as they spend money they have earned abroad on the local economy and do not pose a security threat. Dual citizenship is legal in more than 100 countries, and Ukraine could look to them as examples.