Malta granted citizenship to 800 foreigners in 2009, according to new data issued by Eurostat yesterday.

The granting of Maltese citizenship, which enables holders to acquire the same rights as all other EU citizens, increased by 200 over the previous year and was mainly granted to Australian, British and Canadian nationals.

According to Eurostat, the majority of new Maltese citizenships, more than 38 per cent, were granted to previous citizens from Australia, most probably on grounds of parental connections.

A total of 776,000 persons acquired citizenship of EU member states in 2009.

The new citizens in the EU27 came mainly from Africa (29 per cent of the total number of citizenships acquired), Asia (24 per cent), non-EU Europe (22 per cent), North and South America (15 per cent) and Oceania (one per cent).

Citizens of a member state who acquired citizenship in another member state accounted for eight per cent of the total.

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