EPP Group press statement: ‘Maltese cash for passports: Chairman Daul urges Maltese Prime Minister to listen.’
Maltese cash for passports: Chairman Daul urges Maltese Prime Minister to listen.
Following the developments in Malta after yesterday’s debate EPP Chairman Joseph Daul stated:
“We have followed the developments in Malta very closely as well as the debate in the European Parliament that took place yesterday on the cash-for-passports scheme. I am confused by the declarations that were made yesterday by the Maltese Government. Perhaps we were not following the same debate. The message MEPs and Commissioner Viviane Reding sent was one of resounding disapproval for the Maltese scheme.”
“Declarations suggesting that there is nothing wrong with the scheme and that the Government will continue as planned, defies this institution. The European Parliament is the highest democratic institution in the EU and is deserving of more respect than this.”
MEP David Casa, Head of the PN Delegation in the EP stated:
“Commissioner Viviane Reding’s statements concerning the Maltese scheme are crucial. They indicate that despite citizenship being a member state competence, this scheme has gone so far that, according to the EU Commissioner, it clashes with EU Treaties and international law. To claim business as usual and that things will proceed as planned despite everything that was said yesterday is hugely irresponsible.”
“Now that the European Parliament has spoken with such a strong and resounding voice, I once again urge the Prime Minister to listen and scrap this scheme that is causing so much damage to our reputation.”
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The attack on Malta was interesting, but if you check the main speakers countries most of them, including England, do just that, sell citizenship. The reason for the ganging up on Malta was that it threatened their own schemes. My own views on this scheme are muddied because of the hypocritical double talk. And it does seem that in some form or another we have had this procedure, it’s just making it more formal, and open. If it were means tested, then even poor people could apply, there are rich parasites, and very productive poor….
[Daphne – Come off it, Terry. The only places selling citizenship outright are in the Caribbean. If Britain really did sell citizenship, most of the world’s oligarchs would be British by now, instead of begging for a visa. And Mohammed Al Fayed would have bought his British passport instead of campaigning for it for decades.]
Your comment isn’t worth the pixels it’s written with, Terry, for there is no such thing as English citizenship. People like you should be barred from voting.
Terry Gosden, I’ll repeat it for the millionth (100, 000 according to Mallia) time – the UK has a fast-track visa system.
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/nov/06/theresa-may-great-club-uk-visa-service-launch
It is not only your views on the Maltese scheme that are muddied, but also on the UK (not England) selling citizenship.
The UK has a residency programme but NO citizenship programme. May I recommend the following:
1. Get a brain
2. Switch it on
3. Engage in first gear
4. Open a dictionary and check the difference between citizenship and residence.
5. Eat a banana
Chairman Xi Jinping urges the Maltese government to ignore the EU and go ahead with the scheme.
Of course. The yellow horde cometh.
What is the EPP Chairman’s opinion about obligatory burden -sharing, by the way?
I bet that he would be hopping mad even if Malta had to give for free. Maltese passaports to every single person who lands on Maltese soil irregularly on a boat in search of a better life. My humble opinion anyway.
At this point we really need to start asking why Joseph Muscat is insisting on going ahead with the scheme.
Most democratically elected leaders, and even many dictators, backtrack when faced with massive opposition over a plan. The former fear losing votes and the latter fear losing control and causing unrest.
Whatever it is that’s keeping Muscat so obstinate, it is very puissant.
The scenarios I can imagine are:
1) There were promises made to the Chinese (or whoever financed their campaign/is financing their plans) which cannot be broken at any cost.
2) So much money is going directly into Joseph Muscat’s pockets that he really doesn’t give a damn about losing votes.
3) Joseph Muscat’s vainglory is so strong that he simply can’t get himself to backtrack. The way he sees it, if he backtracks now, he will be losing face and admitting that he made a huge mistake in the first place.
4) A mixture of the above.
Journalists should focus on Muscat’s obstinacy. It is simply abnormal.
In the past years we have seen, among many others, governments from France (pension reform) to China (capital projects) to Thailand (a dodgy amnesty) giving in to opposition and backtracking.
The only leader who consistently completely ignored widespread and vocal opposition was Ukraine’s Viktor Yanukovych and that’s hardly august company for our Prime Minister to keep.
Get your comparison right, Matthew S.
This isn’t merely opposition. This is a ruling by the highest institution in the EU.
Loudness is a dangerous yardstick by which to judge opposition. After all, most of the Maltese, and the loudest by far, were all enthusiastically backing an electoral coup engineered by the most evil and cynical party in a generation.
Understanding why Joseph Muscat refuses to backtrack isn’t difficult at all. Here is a man who got everything he wanted, from his earliest infancy right up through adulthood. Except for one thing: he lost the EU referendum. So the EU is his schoolyard enemy.
Anything it says, he will do the opposite. Eventually, perhaps six to ten years down the line, he will have withdrawn Malta from the European Union and snubbed all those who dared oppose his wishes.
That is our Prime Minister – a spoilt child, and a spoilt man.
I think you are being very optimistic when you say “perhaps six to ten years down the line, he will have withdrawn Malta from the European Union and snubbed all those who dared oppose his wishes.”
He is trying to get us out in 6 to 8 months. All he needs is the Euro 1.2 billion on paper and he can then tell his Malta Lkoll geniuses that he no longer needs EU for anything not even funds.
When our Prime Minister was warned that a push-back of irregular immigrants rescued from drowning was against international law he immediately back tracked.
Now he is being told authoritatively that his IIP scheme violated the Treaty of the European Union and the international law and he acknowledges the message without doing anything about it.
The obvious question is who is holding him up this time? And I do mean a “hold up” with a gun stuck in his back and an anonymous finger on the trigger.
Spot on. H.P. Baxxter
We will all reap the consequences of this government’s irresponsible behaviour. I honestly do not know how people voted for them. Not even a year in power and there is blatant corruption, abuse of power and irresponsible decisions that will have terrible repercussions on business in Malta.
What did everyone expect, when you vote for a man who campaigned against the EU? This is what you get – a man who does not respect EU opinion.
….and since Joseph Muscat is not respecting the EU’s opinion logically he is also insulting the majority of Maltese, me included, who voted for EU membership.
Joseph Muscat is a fake, a hoodwinker, a man who sows us one thing and hands out another completely different item from that shown in the advert.
From the moment there was the move on Carm Mifsud Bonnici and Richard Cachia Caruana, I understood what the moves were about: an attack on sound values and on intelligence.
And I also understood the mover behind the scenes.
To those for whom little details are important, also important is the moment where seemingly loose-ended details stored over the years as a never completed puzzle come together to form a coherent, frightening understanding of the wider picture.
Some reactions denote a literal mentality and not a strategic one. Most times, especially with Joseph Muscat, one needs to use the tool of “focus:” one needs to zoom in and zoom out several levels from the literal position being presented.
The answer to the question is never going to be in the literal interpretation, because Joseph Muscat will have been responding to a meta focus that lies upwards of the situation presented.
The literal interpretation is the necessary charade.
He is playing with the actors in accordance to a predetermined goal.
The acceptance of the various instances where transparency has been lacking is astounding. A dangerous nonchalance with a stulted media that permits Joseph Muscat to move forward.
I would be extremely attentive as to where the build-up with the EU is leading. I believe the main fireworks display is not this citizenship issue, but what has been set for when Malta holds the Presidency.
I am not one who thinks that his aim is to leave the EU, but I view his actions as such where the ultimate goal is to eventually see it implode.
The UK is already talking about forming a smaller union with “like-minded players.”
Alarm bells should be ringing for those who want the EU to have a future.
Literal interpretations and point to point thinking need to step up in level.