Prime Minister Joseph Muscat yesterday gave the strongest signal yet that the government is prepared to accept changes to the cash-for-citizenship scheme.

Without going into details, Dr Muscat hoped that a political solution would soon be reached with the Opposition.

He was asked about the matter at the end of a Brussels summit for EU leaders.

“The government has shown goodwill and shifted its position,” he said.

“I now expect others to shift from their stand and reach a compromise.”

The government has shown goodwill, I now expect others to shift from their stand and reach a compromise

The Opposition has rejected the government’s plans to sell citizenship for €650,000 and threatened to withdraw any passports that were granted under the scheme if it is elected back into power.

Malta ended up at the centre of international controversy since the scheme gave beneficiaries unfettered access to the EU.

But Dr Muscat said the controversy had no bearing on the conclusions of the Brussels summit, adding that nobody had raised the issue, not even at technocrat level.

This put paid to concerns that the issue risked derailing Malta’s cause on immigration, he added.

“The fears fanned by some did not materialise because there is a realisation that citizenship is the sole competence of the individual member states,” Dr Muscat said.

The Prime Minister was unperturbed by the European Parliament’s decision to discuss the citizenship scheme in the second week of January.

“The timings of the European Parliament are not our timings,” he said.

He gave no deadline for the end of consensus talks with the Opposition but insisted that the issue could not be allowed to drag on indefinitely.

ksansone@timesofmalta.com