The leader of the Socialist Group in the European Parliament, Hannes Swoboda, this morning called on the European Union to establish common rules to govern the granting of European citizenship.
Speaking a day before the European Parliament debates Malta's citizenship scheme, he said the granting of citizenship should not be treated solely as something in the remit of member states as it involved the sale of EU passports.
The Socialist leader criticised the fact that Malta was offering citizenship for the wealthy while taking a tough position on the issue of irregular immigration, arguing that Malta could not accommodate more asylum seekers.
The Maltese scheme would have made more sense if some of the revenue would have gone directly to support asylum seekers, he said.
He however, criticised the European People's Party (the parliamentary group the PN is affiliated to) saying it had raised a big fuss on Malta's scheme without having come out openly against similar schemes operated by other countries.
Last week, Mr Swoboda reportedly said that linking EU citizenship to payment "undermined European values."
'CRAZY' SCHEME
In other comments today, Former Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt, one of the leaders of the Liberals' group described Malta's scheme as 'crazy'.
"This is crazy, I have no other comment to make, I just think such a scheme is crazy," he said without further elaboration.
Daniel Cohn-Bendit, co-chairman of the European Greens said that while he acknowledged the jurisdiction of every member state to grant citizenship, the scheme was 'ridiculous' as it went against European treaties.
The socialists and representatives of the Maltese government are arguing that Malta should not be singled out in the motion as other countries have similar schemes. However the PPE, the liberals and the greens are arguing that the debate came to the fore because Malta was selling citizenship.
Meanwhile, the motion due to be debated tomorrow has not been formally presented yet. Informed sources said that the motion has been proposed by the PPE group but talks are being held to bring the other groups on board.
Meanwhile, Helga Ellul, a PN candidate for the European Parliament elections, said in a statement this morning that as a business person herself, she understand, and actually encouraged, the government’s efforts to attract investment.
"However, our citizenship should remain something of value, rather than an item to be sold with practically no strings attached."
She said she had 'earned' her Maltese citizenship. "More than that, I value the Maltese citizenship, which is why I did my very best in every occasion I had to contribute towards the strengthening of our economy, our country."
"I witnessed the hard work performed by workers, professionals, and policy makers to continuously improve our financial situation, standard of living and international reputation, and other, if you allow me, persons of high calibre. No one, irrelevant of how rich the person is, should be able to buy all this work by simply writing a cheque. Citizenship should be earned and honoured, but never bought."