The European Commission has urged EU governments to cancel national programs to sell citizenship to investors, also known as golden passport schemes, and urged them to suspend issuing visas to Russians and Belarusians, Reuters reports.

Some citizens of Russia or Belarus who are under sanctions or who support the war in Ukraine could obtain EU citizenship or privileged access to the EU, including for free movement within the Schengen area, under these schemes, the European Commission said.

The Commission called for an immediate end to existing national passport sales programs. Currently, only Malta, Cyprus and Bulgaria have such schemes, and all of them have committed to putting an end to them. The Cypriot Parliament voted to end its program.

Brussels also said that governments should check whether people subject to sanctions have a golden passport or a visa issued to them.

The European Commission said it did not know if the beneficiaries of the program included people subject to sanctions. The commission said it was up to countries to decide whether to revoke these passports and revoke their residence permits immediately.

The commission refrained from calling for an end to golden visa programs but called for strict scrutiny and asked EU governments to suspend issuing residence permits to Russians and Belarusians.