The European Commission is very satisfied it reached “a quick” agreement with Malta on the citizenship programme.
Commission vice president Maroš Šefčovič said the agreement was done “in good faith” and now Brussels “expects Malta to honour the residency requirement also in good faith”.
Speaking to Times of Malta at the end of a two-day visit to the island, dominated by the cash-for-citizenship debate, Mr Šefčovič had words of praise for the government’s actions to strike an agreement with Brussels.
“We were concerned about this scheme, particularly because the European Parliament was very agitated,” he said.
This also a learning curve. It has demonstrated the importance of focusing more on EU citizenship
“When I first heard that Malta wanted to sell European citizenship, I immediately thought we need to sit down with the Maltese government to understand better what they had in mind and find a way forward.
“That is what we finally did and now we think the scheme respects European values,” he said.
Following months of debate, several changes, a European Parliament resolution calling for Malta to modify the scheme and the European Commission’s threat of launching infringement procedures, Malta and Brussels finally ironed out their differences after the island agreed to insert a residency requirement for those wanting to buy into the scheme.
Although Mr Šefčovič acknowledged that several member states had similar citizenship schemes, he said Malta’s was unique as it lacked a genuine link.
“Our principal concern was that there was no genuine link requirement with the island for any third country national who wanted to acquire Maltese and European citizenship.
“Now Malta has agreed to insert a 12-month residency requirement, we can move on and focus on other issues,” he said.
Asked why the Commission felt it wanted to interfere in purely Maltese issues, as citizenship normally falls in the area of national competence, the 47-year-old Social Democrat from Slovakia said that although at face value citizenship “is indeed a national competence”, the scheme also offers EU citizenship, “which comes with rights and obligations in other member states”.
“The fact is that, through Maltese citizenship, one can also obtain European citizenship, which, in itself, entails free movement rights in other member states. So one cannot really argue that there isn’t also the interest of all the other EU member states,” he noted.
“For us, this was also a learning curve. It has demonstrated the importance of focusing more on EU citizenship, something we have to discuss in more detail in the future,” he said.
Mr Šefčovič said that the disagreement hinged on the “genuine link” issue, which, through the 12-month residency requirement, was now settled.
He said both sides agreed on the wording of the residency requirement and there should be no issue on it.
In a joint declaration announcing the agreement, Brussels and Malta agreed that “no certificate of naturalisation will be issued unless the applicant provides proof that he/she has resided in Malta for a period of at least 12 months immediately preceding the day of issuing the certificate of naturalisation”.
Pressed on this point as Prime Minister Joseph Muscat has said that this requirement may not necessarily mean a full 12-month period in Malta, Mr Šefčovič said he did not want to enter into a fresh debate with the government but insisted the most important thing was that what had been agreed upon was fully respected.
Asked what happens if the 12-month residency requirement was not effectively enforced, the European commissioner replied that “he believes that Malta will follow what has been agreed”.
“In politics you cannot exclude anything. But let’s start from a positive beginning as I’m sure that Malta will implement the scheme in good faith.
“Today, I am satisfied that we managed to clarify this issue with Malta very quickly.”