The European Commission, the EU's executive arm, published a report earlier in the day urging members to curb the practice of granting "golden visas and passports" to foreign investors.
It singled out Cyprus, Bulgaria and Malta for running schemes granting citizenship to foreign investors for anywhere between 500,000 euros ($570,000) and two million euros.
The Cypriot programme, which primarily attracts wealthy Russians and Chinese, has attracted billions of euros in investment. The island's president, Nicos Anastasiades, told reporters that Cyprus was being unfairly singled out, hinting that "rivalry" with other countries was to blame.
"Eventually these double standards must end," he said. "We have the strictest criteria of all 20 states offering European citizenship, yet Cyprus is still targeted." He said the small island nation was responsible for only 0.3 percent of all citizenships handed out across the EU.