Clerks from the National Citizenship Authority in Romania and Sector 1 City Hall in Bucharest are being investigated for having allegedly granted illegal citizenship. So far, three people have been detained for 24 hours in the case, after prosecutors searched 32 homes and investigated 36 people. Those detained have allegedly granted Romanian citizenship to citizens from the neighboring Republic of Moldova.

Moldavian nationals accounted for 65 percent of new citizens in Romania in 2009, according to data from Eurostat. Stateless people made up 22 percent of new Romanian citizens the same year.

Moldavians also feature highly among citizenship candidates in Bulgaria, with almost 30 percent of new Bulgarian citizens coming from the Republic of Moldova in 2009. Another target country for Republic of Moldova citizens is Portugal, where they made 10.7 percent of the new citizens.

On the other hand, Romanians make up the bulk of new Hungarian citizens – 30 percent. They also get citizenship in Italy, where 21.5 percent of the new Italian citizens in 2009 were Romanians. Germany comes next, with 18.5 percent of new citizens from Romania, and UK, with 7.8 percent of new citizens.

editor@romania-insider.com