A defiant Joseph Muscat said yesterday the government will “move forward” with the citizenship scheme because it is convinced the country will benefit from it.

Speaking after the European Parliament had overwhelmingly voted against plans to sell Maltese passports for cash, the Prime Minister said: “This is a purely national issue. We listened [to the European Parliament] and took note of what was said and it’s now time to move forward.

“This government was elected to decide, defend the national interest and improve the people’s quality of life. We believe the citizenship scheme, which comes with investment, will achieve this and are convinced it will be of enormous benefit,” he said during a press conference shortly after the vote.

However, Opposition leader Simon Busuttil condemned, “with no reservation”, the Prime Minister’s decision to forge ahead. He said the Prime Minister should change the scheme if he had truly listened to the vote – in which 90 per cent of the European Parliament agreed that the scheme was undermining EU citizenship.

We took note of what was said…it’s time to move forward

He said the Opposition would keep fighting until the scheme was stopped or changed to better reflect EU values.

The European Parliament’s non-binding resolution against the sale of European citizenship was approved with 560 votes for, 22 against and 44 abstentions.

The four Labour MEPs – Marlene Mizzi, Joseph Cuschieri, Claudette Abela Baldacchino and John Attard Montalto – voted against the resolution, while PN MEPs Roberta Metsola and David Casa voted in favour.

In the approved text – which disagreed with putting “a price tag” on citizenship – there were specific references to Malta and the Individual Investors Programme, the official name of the citizenship scheme.

Under the programme, a Maltese passport will be granted in return for a €650,000 fee and some investment in property and government bonds or shares. In approving the original text of the motion, the majority of MEPs also voted to retain specific references to Malta.

The approved text stated that Malta recently took steps to introduce a scheme for “the outright sale of Maltese citizenship, which automatically entails the outright sale of EU citizenship”.

The motion expressed concern at the scheme and called on Malta to bring its current citizenship scheme into line with EU values.

Dr Muscat, however, insisted that this was a non-binding resolution in the same way as the Parliament’s statements on abortion had been non-binding and had not been adopted by Malta because they were not in the national interest.

This is an immature and stubborn decision that will increase the damage already done to the country

Also, other member states did not share the burden of irregular immigration despite calls by the European Parliament, he said.

“This is a purely national issue,” he said, adding that the original scheme had been tweaked and was “a compromise” reached following consultation with the Chamber of Commerce and the financial services’ regulator, among others.

The scheme would yield €1 billion that would go towards projects aimed at improving standards of living and generating employment.

These projects will be funded by the National Economic and Social Development Fund, to be set up over the next few weeks, he said.

Citizenship applications from people of “high calibre”, some of who were “household names”, were encouraging, he said. He insisted that the scheme was in line with European treaties just like similar schemes introduced by other countries such as Austria, Cyprus and Latvia.

“There was no sale of citizenship. This is investment. The only thing that was sold was our country. Simon Busuttil sold Malta and the people will hold him accountable for this,” Dr Muscat said as he pointed out that the PN had put Malta’s scheme under Europe’s spotlight through the resolution.

About the Socialists’ decision to vote in favour of the resolution, he said he was satisfied that they voted to remove Malta’s name from the resolution.

Dr Busuttil said that intelligent people would realise that the damage to the country was caused by the scheme and not by those who criticised it.

The European Parliament’s vote was one of no confidence in the citizenship scheme and in the Prime Minister who should listen and halt the programme.

He pointed out that during the debate in the European Parliament, European Commissioner Viviane Redding warned Malta that the sale of citizen-ship went against EU and international laws.

She also said there could be negative consequences. These could, he said, lead to legal proceedings being opened against Malta by the European Commission.

“This is an immature and stubborn decision that will increase the damage already done to the country. The Prime Minister is isolating himself and Malta. If the government goes ahead with the scheme, it will be a pity,” Dr Busuttil said.

“We call on the government to stop the scheme. The Opposition will keep on working to stop or change the scheme to ensure citizenship is not for sale and our identity is respected.”

The next step, he said, was to follow through on the motion tabled earlier this week to drop the legal notice that had still to be discussed and voted on in the Maltese Parliament.