Opposition leader Simon Busuttil said this morning that there would be no scope to withdraw the citizenship of people who acquired it in terms of the agreement reached between the government and the European Union, as long as that agreement was strictly adhered to.

In this context, he said, the minimum residence requirement of one year had to be respected.

Speaking on TVAM, Dr Busuttil said the Opposition still continued to view the one year residence requirement as being too short. At the very least, it expected this minimum requirement should be effective. Furthermore, the  Opposition, he said,  would also insist that all those who acquired citizenship under the Individual Investor Programme should be made known.

In other points, Dr Busuttil reiterated his concerns over the mooring of an LNG tanker in Marsaxlokk Bay, saying the risk was something which no responsible government would take, given the dangers to life and limb.

He said the government had not even carried out any serious study on anchoring the ship outside the bay. How could the prime minister argue that it was safer to have the gas tanker in the bay and not outside when logic, as well as international experts, were saying otherwise?

This situation, he said, was akin to what had taken place in Cyprus, when weapons were placed near the power station. They blew up, took out the power station, and destroyed the Cypriot economy.

The Maltese government was placing a gas tanker near the power station, with the obvious risk first to the neighbours, and then to the economy. This he said, was madness.

Such opposition to this plan did not mean that the PN was against lower electricity tariffs, Dr Busuttil insisted.

The Opposition Leader said unemployment was continuing to rise under this government, and no new ideas for job creation had been produced by the government. So where was the change the government had promised? Where was the roadmap? Where is the beef?

Dr Busuttil said the fact that the prime minister had not consulted the Opposition on the appointment of the President was a blow to relations between the two sides. The Opposition, however, would call on the people to unite behind the new President, showing that it was the Opposition, not the Government, which was working for unity.