The government has backtracked on its original citizenship scheme, adding a €500,000 investment in property and government stock to the €650,000 cash contribution required to obtain a Maltese passport.
This would create a bond with the country, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said yesterday. Over and above the contribution, applicants will have to purchase property worth at least €350,000 or spend at least €16,000 a year on rent, as well as invest €150,000 in government stocks, bonds or shares – all of which must be tied down for five years.
Seventy per cent of the €650,000 payment will go towards a National Economic and Social Development Fund and the rest to the government’s coffers.
Details of the new scheme were explained by Dr Muscat two hours after a meeting on the issue with Opposition Leader Simon Busuttil, which ended with the collapse of talks that had been taking place between the two sides in an attempt to reach a consensus.
“This government is not proud; it listens and we have talked to the stakeholders. Yes, we could have done it a lot better and I shoulder full responsibility,” he said.
“But what’s important is that we listened to the people’s concerns and now have a more onerous scheme with which the country will attract talented people who will also contribute to the country’s wealth,” Dr Muscat said, as he reiterated that the secrecy clause had been abolished once and for all.
He said the government had addressed the concerns and the shortcomings connected to the original programme and was now presenting one that “creates a bond with Malta”.
It will not be managed by a company but by Identity Malta, a government agency.
The National Economic and Social Development Fund will be overseen by a board of independent trustees “with the fund being treated on the same level as the Central Bank”.
“The total investment of €1.15 million will create a bond between the applicants and Malta in a tangible manner,” Dr Muscat said.
Another aspect of the new-look scheme is the capping: after 1,800 successful candidates are chosen, the scheme will be stopped.
The due diligence will now have four separate stages, with the Malta Financial Services Authority having the final say. The process will take a minimum of six months and a maximum of two years.
Henley and Partners, previously given exclusivity on selling the programme, will have their contract revised. Any professionals, whether lawyers, accountants or financial services providers, can now apply to become agents.
Asked why talks between the government and Opposition had failed, Dr Muscat said that while the PN wanted citizenship granted after a five-year residency period, the government believed that a five-year contractual obligation for the property purchase or rent and for the investment was sufficient.
David Curmi, president of the Chamber of Commerce, Enterprise and Industry, which also represents estate agents, Kenneth Farrugia from Finance Malta, and Tony Zahra, vice-president of the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association (MHRA), all endorsed the revamped scheme and flanked Dr Muscat during the press conference yesterday evening.
MHRA president Paul Bugeja later clarified that Mr Zahra was there in his personal capacity and not on the association’s behalf as its council does not yet have a position on the new scheme.
Earlier, Nationalist Party leader Simon Busuttil said the Opposition could never agree with a scheme which was still proposing an outright sale of Malta’s citizenship without first obliging that person to create a bond with the country and its people.
He said the changes the government was proposing were cosmetic, with the sale remaining as an underlying principle.
In a letter to the Prime Minister, he called on the government to scrap the scheme and desist from further damaging Malta’s reputation.
Dr Busuttil did not exclude challenging the Legal Notice in Parliament once the details of the new scheme were published.