The Global Residence Programme launched by the Government does not have the “necessary safeguards”, the Nationalist Party said yesterday.

Launched last Saturday by Parliamentary Secretary for Economic Growth Edward Zammit Lewis, the new residence programme for foreigners will replace the foreign residents’ scheme, which was controversially suspended in 2011. The new scheme will allow those who buy high value property and pay taxes in Malta to benefit from a residence permit.

“While the Nationalist Party favours the introduction of such programmes, which are primarily intended to support the property market, it expresses concern that the new scheme launched does not appear to have the necessary safeguards to mitigate the risks associated with the old permanent residency scheme the previous Government had to revise because of abuse and actual cost to the Maltese tax payer,” the PN said in a statement. Having a residence permit will entitle non-EU nationals to free health care, free education, including University tuition (plus stipend), and other benefits that ordinary Maltese citizens would have contributed towards from their taxes.

“The scheme issued by the previous administration to replace the old permanent residence scheme sought to provide a solution to this problem while still attracting truly high net worth individuals,” the PN added. The Opposition noted that further subsidiary legislation still needed to be issued and augured that this legislation will address taxpayers’ concerns.

Meanwhile, the Malta Developers Association welcomed the new initiative, saying it had been insisting for a long time that a programme like this had to have attractive conditions to succeed.

“It appears that now the Government has come up with a good programme with more realistic conditions than had been introduced previously.”