Eurostat: 24,000 Ukrainians were granted citizenship in EU countries in 2016

24,000 Ukrainians were granted citizenship in the EU member states in 2016, Eurostat informs. 

The total of nearly 995,000 persons acquired citizenship of one of the EU member states in 2016, while in 2015 this number was 841,000, and 889,000 in 2014. 

Among those who acquired citizenship of one of the EU countries, 12% were the former citizens of the other EU country. The majority of the EU passports were issued to non-EU citizens or stateless. 

“The largest group acquiring citizenship of an EU Member State where they lived in 2016 was citizens of Morocco (101,300 persons, of whom 89% acquired citizenship of Spain, Italy or France),” the document states. They are followed by the citizens of Albania (67,500 persons, of whom 97% acquired citizenship of Italy or Greece), India (41,700 persons, of whom nearly 60% acquired citizenship of Britain), Pakistan (32,900 persons, of whom more than a half acquired citizenship of Britain), Turkey (32,800 persons, of whom more than a half acquired citizenship of Germany), and Romania (29,700 persons, of whom 44% acquired citizenship of Italy). 

24,000 of Ukrainians obtained the EU passports, with 60% acquired citizenship of Germany, Romania, Portugal or Italy. In 2015, 19,000 Ukrainians acquired citizenship of a EU country. 

Moroccans, Albanians, Indians, Pakistanis, Turks, Romanians, and Ukrainians make up nearly a third (33%) of the total number of persons who were granted citizenship in EU countries in 2016. 

Romanians (29,700 persons) and Poles (19,800 persons) became the “the two largest groups of EU citizens acquiring citizenship of another EU Member State.”

 It should be reminded that nearly 9,000 Ukrainians sought asylum in the EU in 2017.