Senior official at the Office of the Prime Minister admits that the government has hinged its budget on selling Maltese citizenship
Mario Farrugia Borg – Muscat has put him on the state payroll as a reward for helping him get elected. Farrugia Borg has now written that the government needs to sell passports to pay its bills.
Mario Farrugia Borg, a senior official at the Office of the Prime Minister, has had an article published in The Malta Independent today, in which he bare-facedly admits that the government has hinged its budget for next year on income from the sale of Maltese citizenship.
In other words, far from being an ‘add-on’ which will be spent on luxuries like social housing for those who refuse to work, which in itself is bad enough, this was going to be survival revenue for them because they had no idea of how else to bring in money normally. In other words, this idiot and his boss who put him in the Office of the Prime Minister in return for his having done the same with him, has just gone and lent credibility to all those international front pages mocking Malta for selling passports for cash because we are bankrupt and desperate.
Here’s what he said – because, of course, it is normal practice for a senior official at the Office of the Prime Minister, even if he is a political appointee, to write in this vein about the Opposition.
The budget panicked them. It was a budget that surprised even those who do not traditionally support Labour. So when the IIP was announced, the Nationalists acted like a drowning man clutching at a straw. First they were contemplating the scheme. Then they were in favour of the scheme in principle but against the details. Then they were against it outright.
There is another reason why the PN acted this way. They know that the success of the Budget partly relies on the success of the IIP. The Labour Government knows that the 30 million Euros it plans to make out of this scheme will help it to achieve the aims of the budget.
Farrugia Borg is the prime minister’s full-time personal adviser on Muslim affairs, though what he does there all day on a salary plus perks, to advise on what is a minor matter in Malta, is anybody’s guess. How he got to be there, on the other hand, is a fact: Joseph Muscat used the state payroll to reward him. Muscat put Farrugia Borg in the Office of the Prime Minister in return for Farrugia Borg having helped put Muscat there.
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http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2013-12-04/opinions/can-the-leopard-change-its-spots-3374153729/
Joey tapp ta, imma dak Mario xi haga specjali. Where’s the rest of him?
Why does Joseph seem to be in love with all his appointees? What’s going on here?
So Farrugia Borg, being a Muslim, deems it immoral that a lender charges interest on his money but finds it acceptable that a country dishes out its citizenship for no reason but for a cash payment. Very coherent indeed.
As a public official, he should not pronounce himself on political issues as he is there to serve the whole people of Malta and not a particular sector or political grouping.
Our PM would fit the bill as the lead singer of ABBA… A Bunch of Bloody Amateurs.
The Liberal group is tabling a Parliamentary Question, titled ‘EU citizenship for sale’.
“…the Maltese decision is problematic,” it says, “as it entitles new citizens to travel in the EU and get access to the rest of the Schengen area without consultation of the other Members.” (The whole text is reproduced below)
Given that in 2011 alone 783,000 EU passports were dished out to migrants (see link: http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/445551/UK-hands-out-most-passports-in-Europe) “without consultation of the other Members” what do you make of this PQ?
Is it a case of political buffoonery? Lopsided morality? Hypocrisy? Or just the usual inaptitude of the uninformed?
………………
TEXT:
On 12 November 2013 Malta’s Parliament approved a bill allowing third country nationals to buy the Maltese citizenship, and therefore to enjoy freedom of movement in the EU and access to the Schengen area, for € 650,000.
While decisions on issues of nationality and citizenship are Member States’ exclusive competence, the Maltese decision is problematic as it entitles new citizens to travel in the EU and get access to the rest of the Schengen area without consultation of the other Members. It could therefore be interpreted as an abuse of the rights that the country has acquired through its membership and as a lack of respect for the other Member States and Members of the Schengen area.
It also raises important concerns as regards possible discriminations as only the richest third country nationals will be able to buy the citizenship.
Moreover it is not clear whether Maltese citizens will benefit from this policy, for example through collection of taxes. Citizenship involves not only rights, but also responsibilities, however foreign investors won’t be held to this.
Finally this decision raises questions on whether such a way of getting the Maltese citizenship does not undermine the very concept of the European citizenship
Can the Commission state that the Maltese Parliament’s decision respects the letter and the spirit of the Treaties and the Schengen Borders Code as well as the EU non-discrimination rules?
Moreover at least 5 other Member States (Spain, Cyprus, Portugal, Latvia, Greece) have offered to sell residency rights in exchange of business investments, real estates or government bonds.
Can the Commission present an overview of the situation in the Member States?
Signature(s): Date: 3 December 2013
Kev, the “lack of consultation” refers to the whole scheme – the “Maltese decision” – and not to each individual citizenship sold.
Yes, Antoine, the ‘lack of consultation’ relates to the scheme, specifically the “problematic” aspect of the scheme that “entitles new citizens to travel in the EU and get access to the rest of the Schengen area…”
You deserve 783,000 slaps on the face for being so dim-witted.
This guy should concentrate all his efforts on advising the PM on Muslim affairs as he is paid to do.
Writing trash in newspapers only rubs salt in the wound caused by the world-wide dressing down that Malta got as a result of its citizenship-for-sale ill-thought-out and ill-advised tragicomedy.
The sooner he goes to Brussels to join Cuschieri and Mizzi the better.
His statement is not so much an admission that the budget hinges on the IIP as it is a veiled threat.
Should the IIP fall through, we will all be made to pay dearly in future budgets. Needless to say, government will be able to place the blame squarely on the PN’s shoulders.
Which reminds me – what point are we at on the citizenship scheme? Have we all already forgotten that it is a law and citizenship is being sold?
The man blatantly lied in that article on more than one occasion too.
“The budget panicked them. It was a budget that surprised even those who do not traditionally support Labour. So when the IIP was announced, the Nationalists acted like a drowning man clutching at a straw.”
It was the other way round. First we heard about the scheme and then we heard about the budget.
“But these are not the real issues for the Nationalists, so it looks like the many shenanigans which happened during the seventies and eighties are set to happen again. “- That’s quite an allegation.
“On the other hand, Labour in Opposition supported the Nationalist Party in power ”
Seriously?
“During the Libyan crisis, Joseph Muscat, as Leader of the Opposition, supported Prime Minister Gonzi and indeed helped him in the interest of Malta.”
Wasn’t Muscat’s advice something to do with unleashing a tourism marketing campaign?
No, the tourism campaign was meant to be during the Tunisian uprising.
During the Libyan campaign, Muscat said we should be careful because it wasn’t certain that Gaddafi wouldn’t remain in power.
How tall, er, short is Farrugia Borg? OPM meetings must look like dinnertime at Snow White’s.
I think I read somewhere that Mario Farrugia Borg is a Labour MEP candidate.
This guy Mario Farrugia Borg is a Ghaddafi lover par excellence. I quote from his letter to the times dated 29.12.2009, called: The Libya I have grown to love.
“Now, one can easily say, “Ah! But you are not African, you are not black! You never stayed at a detention centre!” That is right, but even so, Africans being treated in the manner described in this article is in total contrast to Libyan Leader Mu’ammar Gaddafi’s dreams and hopes for Africa, and to the Libyan government’s policies on Africa, not to mention that racist behaviour is in total contradiction to the religion of Islam.
We in Malta are not very much aware of the great efforts being done by Colonel Gaddafi in respect of the African Union. And emigration out of Africa is a big issue for Colonel Gaddafi – he is totally against it! He believes that Africans should stay in Africa, thus avoiding a brain drain. I myself have heard him deliver speeches to this effect. The unity of the African continent is Gaddafi’s goal, one Africa, one people, one economy, one army. Colonel Gaddafi at present holds the African Union presidency.”
This guy has invented himself as some kind of Revolutionary now, when all he did in the war was hide and drink coffee. he only came out when the coast was clear, along with his mates from the Islamic Call Society in Paola, all of whom were fronts for Musa Kusa in Malta.