The Government’s proposed Individual Investor Programme, which was approved by Parliament yesterday, has proved to be politically controversial. This is unfortunate, as under different conditions such a scheme would deserve to be supported by both sides of the House.

The principle of granting citizenship to bona fide individuals who contribute to Malta’s economic development by substantially investing in our country is positive.

Regrettably, however, the Government’s citizenship scheme is not linked to investment, and hence, job creation; under the new law, a Maltese passport will immediately be awarded to applicants subject to two conditions: a due diligence test and a payment of €650,000, plus additional payments of €25,000 for spouses and dependents.

Such conditions are far too cheap; they do little for Malta’s economic development and they could dent our international reputation. There could also be repercussions on Malta’s positive perception as a credible international financial services centre, something that has been achieved through hard work over the past 25 years with bipartisan support. The last thing Malta needs is to be associated with ‘tax haven’ jurisdictions that offer similar schemes.

A Maltese passport also grants citizens the right to free access to the European Union and visa-free travel to the United States. Such rights should not be granted lightly, and the Government should not underestimate the possible negative reaction in Brussels and Washington to this new programme.

The Government has responded to such criticism by saying that similar schemes exist in a number of EU member states. While Spain, Portugal, Cyprus, Bulgaria and Austria do have schemes for non-EU nationals which lead to citizenship, all these programmes are related to investment and most of them only grant citizenship after the applicants would have resided in the country for a number of years. Unfortunately, our citizenship programme model is closer to the ones found in the Caribbean, rather than in the EU.

The speed with which the Government wanted to pass this law, its refusal to try to reach a consensus with the Opposition, its lack of consultation with various stakeholders, especially financial practitioners, as well as the fact that the names of those granted citizenship will not be made public, have raised questions about the intentions behind this new measure. Such speculation does the country, and the economy, no good at all.

The Government should also consider the fact its citizenship programme was not included in its electoral manifesto and it therefore can be argued that it has no mandate for the introduction of such a law.

The Government should have gone out of its way to reach consensus with the Oppo­sition on this very delicate subject; instead, it bulldozed its way to passing this law. Citizenship should not be a polarising or partisan issue; it is something where common sense and consensus should prevail. Unfortunately, the Government’s unreasonable attitude has made this impossible.

That said, while the Opposition has righ­tly pointed out several deficiencies in the law as proposed, Simon Busuttil went a step too far by saying a future PN administration would revoke citizenship granted under the scheme. Such an approach causes unhealthy uncertainty in the country.

However, it is strange that no backbench Labour MP has voiced his or her concern over this law. Is it possible that they all agree with the selling of Maltese passports for a simple fee? Such silence from a party that in the past was so committed to Malta’s sovereignty seems out of character.

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