The European Parliament’s conference of Presidents – representing all the political groups in the European Parliament, this morning gave the green light for the plenary will hold an urgent debate on Malta’s c-citizenship scheme.

Sources in Brussels confirmed to timesofmalta.com that the Socialist Group in the EP also agreed with the holding 'of such an important debate' despite the objections of Malta’s Labour MEPs.

The head of the PN delegation in Brussels, David Casa, said the fact that all the political groups agreed to hold this debate confirmed how isolated the Maltese Labour MEPs are.

“While accusing us that we are trying to harm Malta’s reputation, the Labour MEPs did not manage to convince their own group in Brussels about this  scheme which is harming Malta’s reputation,” Mr Casa said.

“If there is someone harming Malta’s reputation it is the Labour government through this badly conceived scheme to sell EU passports”, he said.

The debate will be held on January 15 and will also be addressed by the Council and the European Commission.

The Financial Times earlier this week reported that EU governments were getting very uneasy with the Maltese scheme which will see Malta sell EU passports to non-EU citizens for €650,000 per citizenship.

EPP President Joseph Daul said in a statement this afternoon that the  scheme as adopted by the Maltese Parliament seemed to be a clear abuse of EU citizenship and Schengen rules.

"Even if the Maltese give in to reason, and drop this scheme, it remains important that the European Parliament debates this issue. EU citizenship comes with rights and obligations. We will remain vigilant to make sure that these rights and obligations are respected,” he said.