Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said this afternoon that the government had noted the vote in the European parliament on the sale of citizenship but the scheme in Malta would be retained.

Dr Muscat said it was clear, also in the debate, that the granting of citizenship was a matter of national competence.

The government, he said, had been elected to govern in the national interest. It was elected to bring about change and to raise living standards.

The Individual Investor Programme (the scheme's formal name) would help Malta achieve those aims, yielding a billion euro which would go into a fund for development in various sectors including social development, education, health  and innovation, as well as job creation.

The programme, he said, was a compromise from the original programme, agreed after the governemnt heard suggestions by the regulator of financial services and the Chamber of Commerce, among others.

Other countries had similar programmes, Dr Muscat insisted.

He stressed that the European Parliament motion was non-binding, in the same way as the parliament's statements on abortions had been non-binding and had not been adopted by Malta because they were not in the national interest. One could also see how other countries did not share the burden of irregular immigration despite calls by the European Parliament.

Dr Muscat strongly criticised the Nationalist Party and its MEPs for working against Malta's interests and accused Simon Busuttil of 'selling Malta'. 

The €1000 million from the Individual Investor Programme would bring about a substantial change for Malta.

The projects which would be funded from revenue from this programme would be announced next week. Once the projects started being realised, the people would know that the PN had been against them.

The actions of the Nationalist MEPs would boomerang in spectacular manner against them, he said.

Dr Muscat said he was greatly encouraged by the applications already being made for citizenship, and said the applicants were the sort of high net value people which Malta was seeking to attract. Godwin Grima (former head of the civil service) would soon be formally appointed to oversee the programme.

Dr Muscat said he was satisfied that socialist MEPs had attempted to remove reference to Malta in the motion.