More than half of those granted Bulgarian citizenship in 2008 came from Macedonia – joining the 22 per cent of new EU citizens that year who came from countries in Europe but outside the bloc.
 
This emerges from figures released on July 6 2010 by EU statistics office Eurostat, which said that in 2008, 696 000 people were given citizenship of an EU member state, a decrease from 707 000 the previous year.
 
In 2008, the largest share of new EU citizens was from Africa (29 per cent), followed by non-EU27 Europe, Asia (19 per cent) and north and south America (17 per cent).
 
Citizens of one EU27 member state who acquired citizenship in another member state accounted for eight per cent of the total.

In 2008, the highest number of citizenships were granted by France (137 000 people), the United Kingdom (129 000) and Germany (94 000), which together accounted for more than 50 per cent of all citizenships granted by the EU27 member states.
 
The number of citizenships granted can be related to the number of resident foreigners i.e. non-nationals resident in the member state, Eurostat said.
 
The highest rates were registered in Sweden (54 citizenships granted per 1000 resident foreigners), Portugal (51), Poland (48), Finland (47) and Hungary (43), and the lowest rates in the Czech Republic (three), Ireland and Luxembourg (both six).
 
The EU27 average was 23 citizenships granted per 1000 resident foreigners.

When compared with the population of each member state, the highest rates of citizenship granted were recorded in Sweden (3.3 citizenships granted per 1000 inhabitants), Luxembourg (2.5), France, Portugal and the United Kingdom (all 2.1).
 
Ten member states granted less than one citizenship per 1 000 inhabitants, with the lowest rate observed in Poland, followed by the Czech Republic, Lithuania and Slovakia.

The EU27 average was 1.4 citizenships granted per 1000 inhabitants.
 
In 2008, the largest groups that acquired citizenship of an EU member state were citizens of Morocco (64 000), Turkey (50 000), Ecuador (27 000), Algeria (23 000) and Iraq (20 000). 
 
France granted 45 per cent of all the citizenships acquired in the EU27 by Moroccans, Germany 49 per cent of those acquired by Turks, Spain 93 per cent of those acquired by Ecuadorians, France 88 per cent of those acquired by Algerians and the United Kingdom 44 per cent of those acquired by Iraqis.

In some member states, a large part of the citizenships was granted to citizens from only one country.
 
The member states with the highest concentrations were Romania (89 per cent of the new citizens had been citizens of Moldova), Hungary (68 per cent came from Romania), Greece (59 per cent from Albania) and Bulgaria (51 per cent from Macedonia). In Latvia and Estonia, 96 per cent and 92 per cent, respectively, of the new citizens were recognised non-citizens, Eurostat said.