Justice Parliament Secretary Owen Bonnici said yesterday that, although there was nothing to keep a new government from repealing the Citizenship Act, it would not be able to withdraw it because there was no first and second class citizenship.

He said all Maltese citizens had all the rights and obligations of citizenship. As long as one acquired citizenship according to law, and not in a deceitful manner, one could not be “a cowboy” and take away other people’s rights.

Dr Bonnici said that, although Henley & Partners was given the responsibility to promote the citizenship programme and process applications, the main part of the due diligence process for which the applicant would be paying a separate fee would be carried out by independent and specialised due diligence firms, such as ISPA International and Thomson Reuters.

Earlier, Dr Bonnici said the Government felt the Bill was important as it proposed an innovative programme that would benefit the country.

There had been hours of criticism and attacks by the Opposition but, by the time the programme came into force and it saw how it worked, he was sure the Opposition would embrace this programme. There was nothing substantial in the Opposition’s criticism.

It was strange how such few amendments had given rise to such a reaction. The Individual Investor Programme was not about sale of passports but about approval of application for citizenship, based on the contribution an individual would have made to Malta’s development. The Government has taken all steps for it to work well.

Dr Bonnici said the time would come when the Opposition would look back and say that, although it had been afraid, the programme had worked well and helped in the country’s development.