No headway was made in talks between Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and Opposition leader Simon Busuttil on the sale of Maltese passports through the Individual Investor Programme.

Both leaders, who met again yesterday at Auberge de Castille, said there had been no breakthrough in their discussions.

As he exited the meeting, a casually-dressed Dr Muscat said although they were still close to reaching agreement, there was no consensus.

The Prime Minister added that discussions could not go for much longer as decisions had to be taken. On his part, Dr Busuttil said talks will continue tomorrow.

Sources close to the discussions played down the possibility of an agreement last night. “We certainly haven’t taken a step forward,” one source told The Sunday Times of Malta last night.

Talks on the scheme began last month when the so-called Individual Investor Programme, through which Maltese citizenship could be granted against a payment of €650,000, became the subject of harsh criticism both in Malta and in the international press.

The Opposition is insisting that the granting of citizenship should not be an outright sale but should be linked to a five-year period of residence and a minimum €5 million investment.

Last week, both Dr Muscat and Dr Busuttil reported having made good progress, almost indicating that an agreement was imminent.

Addressing the European Parliament earlier this month, Finance Minister Edward Scicluna admitted that the proposed scheme had been rushed through and said the government was ready to put a capping on the number of people given citizenship and demand some form of investment from candidates and a period of residency.

Following this, Dr Muscat conceded that the government had committed a mistake by not listening enough to what the stakeholders were saying on the scheme.

The European Parliament is due to discuss the controversial scheme at a plenary meeting on January 15.