The Opposition’s judicial protest about the citizenship scheme and its motion to repeal the legal notice governing the scheme have been overtaken by events, since the government has presented a new legal notice, PN Deputy Leader Mario de Marco said this afternoon.

Asked to clarify whether the Opposition’s intention to amend the latest legal motion was legally possible, Dr de Marco said the Opposition intended to seek a clarification of the grey areas of the regulations, namely the definition of effective residency and how applicants for citizenship would be required to prove that they had lived in Malta.

He said the issues being raised by the opposition were all about interpretation.

Asked whether the Opposition would actually be withdrawing the judicial protest, Dr de Marco said one had to wait and see developments.

In the judicial protest, the PN had given notice that it would withdraw passports issued under the citizenship scheme.

NEED FOR JOBS PLAN

Dr de Marco made his comments during a press conference in which he called on the government to come up with a national strategy for employment.

He said that although the economic situation was not alarming, in the past 11 months the rate of job creation had not kept up with unemployment.

In 2013 there were 600 more people on the unemployment register than in 2012.

There was a 23% increase in those who had been registering as unemployment for more than a year, a 5% increase of unemployment among those between 20 and 24 years and a 9% increase in those over 25 years.

He expressed concern about the redundancies planned by ArrowParm and said the government needed to develop this national jobs strategy in order to create more opportunities.