Austria is objecting to comparisons made by the Maltese government to justify the recently enacted law to sell passports to non-EU citizens.
“By no stretch of the imagination can Maltese politicians cite the situation in Austria to justify the Maltese scheme,” a senior diplomat at the Foreign Affairs Ministry in Vienna said, taking exception to various comments made by government officials, including Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, that Austria already has a similar programme to Malta’s.
There is absolutely no comparison between what happens in Austria and what the Maltese government is proposing, said the official, who preferred to remain unnamed.
He provided this newspaper with statistics showing that under Austrian law, the number of citizenships granted to non-EU citizens for ‘exceptional circumstances’ are very limited and restricted.
According to the figures, the number of Austrian citizenships granted in exceptional circumstances never exceeded 40 in one particular year. The last time that this law provision was used by Austria was in 2011.
“We do not sell our citizenship and no one can buy it as the Maltese government is proposing. Thus, comparisons between Austria and Malta are odious,” the Austrian official insisted.
Non-EU citizens will obtain a Maltese passport if they pay €650,000, after they go through a monitoring process. They may even obtain passports for their spouses and individual children below 18 years of age by paying €25,000 for each.
We do not sell our citizenship
According to provisions in the Austrian citizenship law, citizenship to persons who do not qualify for it naturally or through marriage and other family reasons can be given it only in exceptional cases.
The provisions in the Austrian law include a confirmation by the Federal government that the granting of citizenship is in the interest of the Republic of Austria and for reasons of exceptional performances already provided by the foreigner and to be expected in the future.
The law specifies that only those achievements that can be classified as exceptional performances and which cannot be provided by other people of the same education and the same educational level and which additionally serve the public interest to a particular degree can qualify.
“Mere ‘cash donations’, financial investments or other planned financial resources do not qualify for the requirements of Austrian citizenship,” the diplomat said.
“Under no circumstances Austrian law provides for the opportunity to ‘buy’ Austrian citizenship.”
Although the cash-for-citizenship law has already been approved by Parliament, the government has not launched it yet following harsh criticism from both the Nationalist Opposition and sections of the international media.
Talks have been under way for the past week between the government and Opposition but no agreement has been found yet.