A Brussels-based newspaper story on the citizenship scheme in which a government spokesman seemingly contradicted the Prime Minister’s statements has stirred controversy, prompting it to retract the claim.

Titled ‘Malta’s sale of EU passports causes controversy’, the story by EU Observer journalist Andrew Rettman quoted government spokesman Kurt Farrugia refusing to rule out the possibility that the government might opt for extra quotas once the cap of 1,800 successful applicants for the scheme was reached.

The story pointed out that such a position was not in line with the pledges made by Prime Minister Joseph Muscat.

I thought this created ambiguity as he was just repeating what the Prime Minister had said

As expected, such remarks did not go unnoticed, especially after timesofmalta.com lifted the story. Within minutes, Mr Farrugia contacted Times of Malta categorically denying such claims. Subsequently, the EU Observer retracted its claim, removing the part where it had quoted Mr Farrugia.

Contacted by Times of Malta, Mr Rettman said there had been a misunderstanding from his side.

He said that following EU Observer’s request for the government spokesman to categorically rule out an upward revision of the quota, Mr Farrugia replied saying the programme was open to 1,800 main applicants and that it would close once this number was reached.

“I thought this created ambiguity as he was just repeating what the Prime Minister had said but at the same time was not ruling out this possibility completely,” the journalist said.

After the story was posted online, the government spokesman contacted him requesting the newspaper to retract the claim.

The government’s citizenship scheme has been widely reported by the international media. The government is giving wealthy non-EU citizens the chance to apply for a Maltese passport by paying €650,000 and investing €350,000 investment in property and €150,000 in government stock.