Headline in The Financial Times: ‘Malta to defy MEPs and sell passports for €650,000’
And of course, it’s all the Nationalist Party’s fault. Unbelievable. How can the better members of the government have allowed this to happen?
Aren’t they concerned? Aren’t they worried about having their names tied to this, about having to defend it? Or have they been cowed into submission? It’s possible to give a dissenting view without turning into a Franco Debono or JPO type of animal.
But the trouble is that they’ve already voted for it and now can’t backtrack.
You have to register to read the full article, and I am not permitted to reproduce it in full, but here are some extracts.
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Malta’s government vowed to press ahead with plans to sell EU passports for €650,000, despite European Parliament calls to scrap a scheme that would turn citizenship into a “tradeable commodity”.
MEPs voted overwhelmingly on Thursday in favour of a resolution saying an EU passport should not have a “price tag” on it. Although the resolution is non-binding, its approval may prod the European Commission to clarify the EU’s stance on citizenship schemes – a policy area that has been under the legal domain of national governments, not Brussels.
(…)
During the MEPs’ debate, EU justice commissioner Viviane Reding suggested that there were other legal grounds on which Brussels might challenge the scheme. Specifically, Ms Reding argued that Malta risked violating a treaty on “sincere co-operation” with fellow EU countries, because the new citizens would be able to live and work in all states.
“Do we like the idea of selling the rights provided by the EU treaties? Certainly not. Citizenship must not be up for sale,” she told the parliament.
(…)
Separately, the commissioner told the Financial Times that member states should award citizenship “only to those who have a ‘genuine link’ to the country in question – and not just a big wallet”.
The commission’s legal experts have discussed possible proceedings against Malta, according to insiders. Member states could, for example, agree among themselves on certain minimum standards for the allocation of passports – such as a requirement for residence in the awarding country, or exceptional service to that state.
(…)
Kamal Rahman, head of immigration at UK law firm Mishcon de Reya, said the parliament’s motion “effectively undermines European free movement rights”.
But, Ms Rahman added: “Whilst the Maltese government has sovereignty to determine its own citizenship requirements it will be under enormous pressure to dilute the single most advantageous requirement of its economic citizenship proposals – that is, the requirement for no prior residence.”
Julia Onslow-Cole, head of global immigration at London-based PwC Legal, added that uncertainties caused by the parliament’s resolution as well as US government anxieties about the programme were “serious negative factors” for prospective clients of the Malta passport.
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You will find the link to the article, below.
US government anxieties about the programme? This is the first we’ve heard about it. So far we’ve been told that the US government has no such anxieties, but the London office of PriceWaterhouseCoopers appears to know something we don’t, and as happens so often nowadays, we have to get the news about Malta through international newspapers.
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http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/c68398a8-7ed9-11e3-a2a7-00144feabdc0.html?siteedition=intl#axzz2qeDxSDH5
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20131028/local/sale-of-citizenship.492337#.UtkAm_sueV4
In 1996, Alfred Sant froze Malta’s application to join the EU.
In 2013, Joseph Muscat froze Malta’s relationship within the EU.
Disgusting.
Rather than just scrapping the scheme, it is increasingly evident that Joseph Muscat’s position as prime minister of an EU member country is no longer tenable. He is unable to carry our flag in the EU. He cannot protect our reputation within the Union. He has undermined the very values that make the Union, and 560 Members of Parliament from all over the continent, from all walks of life and from the whole political spectrum have sent him a clear message: Stop.
That’s OK, who cares? The Financial Times only has a readership of 2.2 million people worldwide and the website FT.com only has 4.5 million registered users.
In any case people who read this paper are mostly non-influential nobodies unlike the readers of L-Orizzont.
“It’s time to move on. FT, move over.”
It’s time to move on, FT. The Malta Chamber of Commerce said so.
“The commission’s legal experts have discussed possible proceedings against Malta, according to insiders.”
Wouldn’t it be funny if any possible infringement proceedings would cancel out the supposed revenue generated by the passports 4 sale scheme? All Muscat would have to show for all his ‘hard work’ is Malta’s reputation as an anti-European failure of a state. (Not that we aren’t that far off already.)
They are going to get us, and I dare say the more experienced in parliament already know that. It is Muscat and his henchmen who are oblivious.
Then again maybe they too know and are hoping to be seen as the hardmen who stood up to the big Zionist capitalist EU which, as it happens, is the way many PL supporters think.
Then again, I don’t think the PL are intelligent enough to think more than one step ahead. They will probably end up red-faced and may eventually be visited by the TROIKA. They might be the most high-profile people the citizenship scam attracts to our shores.
http://www.heute.de/malta-verkauft-paesse-bruessel-konsterniert-31517546.html
No translation necessary for anyone who understands the full meaning of “consternation”.
So many ministers accepted all the unacceptable things Mintoff did when they were ministers then, so following Muscat should be a walk in the park. It’s all about grab grab grab, me me me, what we can put in our pocket today and f..k tomorrow. So typical and so narrow minded.
First they picked a fight with Arriva and then they picked a fight with the EU. When the time is right, they will blame their IIP failure on the EU and of course the PN, and tell us its “time to move on” and into the loving arms of China.
This is typical Labour, inherited from their fallen idol Mintoff. Government by crisis.
The US government is currently preparing to conduct a re-evaluation/review of the visa waiver programme in Malta.
Although this has to be carried out at five-year intervals in all countries included in the programme due to the changing nature of the legislative framework or risk assessment in each country, the government has already been advised by the US embassy in Malta that the sale of citizenship is of particular interest to the State Department.
Does the government have any “better members”?
“Better” members of government? “Better” as in…what?
Quite honestly if I had to choose a “good” member of government I would be quite stuck.
Not unless it’s a proverbial one.
Plenty of dicks there.
The better members of the government will not speak up for fear of being sent to the detention center.
The emphasis is of course on the word ‘defiance’, for which Prime Minister Joseph Muscat will henceforth be remembered in the international fora which in the long run count much more in terms of wealth creation than anything which could be reaped in the short term under the Citizenship scheme.