Slovak passport. (source: TASR)
The member states of the European Union granted their citizenships to altogether 890,000 people in 2014, which is a slight decreased compared to 2013 when 981,000 foreigners received citizenship in EU states, according to the Eurostat statistics office.
Slovakia granted only 234 citizenships in 2014, placing it second to last. The only country granting citizenship to fewer people was Lithuania (183), the SITA newswire wrote.
Of the total number, most new Slovak passports were granted to Ukrainians (26.5 percent), followed by Vietnamese (20.9 percent) and Czechs (15.8 percent).
Overall 24 percent of new citizenships were granted to other EU nationals, while 76 percent went to non-EU citizens.
Regarding the whole EU, up to 89 percent of people who were granted citizenship in 2014 were from countries outside the Union, with the biggest group of them being Moroccans (92,700). They mostly received citizenship in Spain, Italy or France. In second came Albanians (41,000) who were granted their new citizenship in Greece and Italy, SITA reported.
The most citizenships were granted by Spain (205,880), followed by Italy (129,887), the United Kingdom (125,605), Germany (110,610), and France (105,613).
