A Nationalist government would publish all the details of those obtaining Maltese citizenship through the cash-for-passport scheme, Simon Busuttil pledged yesterday.

Following a two-and-a-half-hour-long meeting of the Individual Investor Programme monitoring committee, the Opposition leader said no details were given on who had acquired citizenship. He had demanded the publication of such a list last week.

But Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said the government had the Attorney General’s advice not to publish a distinct list of those acquiring citizenship through the IIP scheme.

The main applicants pay €650,000 for each passport. Photo: Darrin Zammit LupiThe main applicants pay €650,000 for each passport. Photo: Darrin Zammit Lupi

“The AG advised us that the law prohibits us from segregating names,” Dr Muscat said, adding the government was adhering to the law.

The names of all those who acquired citizenship are published every year in the Government Gazzette. However, the list makes no distinction between those obtaining a passport through the IIP scheme or those granted citizenship through marriage and naturalisation.

Dr Muscat said the scheme had already raked in €75 million for the national development fund and 70 per cent of this would go to finance national social projects.

The monitoring committee meets once a year and includes the Prime Minister, the Opposition leader, the Home Affairs Minister and the scheme’s regulator, Godwin Grima.

Dr Busuttil was unrepentant after the meeting.

“The Prime Minister has pledged more than once he will lift the secrecy of this programme and inform the Maltese public about who is buying citizenship. Despite [today’s] long meeting we have not been given this information yet.”

Asked what would the PN do in government, Dr Busuttil said “the PN will practise what it preaches”.

“We will have no secrecy as we believe that the Maltese people have a right to know who theirfellow citizens are. We will have no problem publishing the list of people who will have acquired citizenship through this scheme,” he said.

Dr Busuttil said the committee was informed that, by the end of last month, 73 main applicants had been granted Maltese citizenship. Additionally, 176 dependents were also given Maltese passports as a result of the payment made by each applicant.

Dependents, which include parents, spouses, partners and children of the main applicants, get a passport for a discounted rate of €25,000 each. The main applicants pay €650,000 for a passport and are also obliged to buy a property worth at least €350,000 or rent an immovable property to the tune of €16,000 a year. They have to reside in Malta for at least 12 months before the granting of the passport.

Dr Busuttil said the Opposition was worried that the government was not respecting the 12-month residence condition negotiated with the European Commission.

He said there were no minimum requirements on the duration of the stay in Malta by applicants and “it is obvious” that the government was closing its eyes on this aspect.

The international marketers of the IIP, Henley & Partners, said last week Malta’s cash-for-passports programme was turning out to be “the best in the world” with about 700 applications and an investment of €1 billion having already been received.

Asked whether this was discussed at the meeting, Dr Busuttil said it seemed that Henley & Partners were only basing their statements on applications and not on the passports approved.

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