Now let’s turn to the Kashmir Times, 8 January (it’s already tomorrow there)
From the Kashmir Times:
Last November Malta, the smallest EU member, announced a programme that skips the residence requirement and simply sells Maltese passports to “high-value” individuals who are willing to pay the government 650,000 euros ($885,000).
It’s a quite reasonable price for a passport that confers the right to live and work almost anywhere in Europe and also offers a visa waiver for travel to the United States.
There was an outcry by offended Maltese patriots, but they were mollified when Prime Minister Joseph Muscat’s government raised the price to 1.15 million euros ($1.6 million) a few days ago. So now we know the real value of an EU passport.
Who buys these passports? Mostly rich Chinese: 248 out of 318 residence permits issued by Lisbon in the past three months to people who invested 500,000 euros ($680,000) in Portuguese property went to Chinese nationals. And there is no shortage of potential customers: a Bank of China survey revealed that almost half of the Chinese citizens with assets worth more than 10 million yuan ($1.6 million) are considering moving abroad.
5 Comments Comment
Leave a Comment
http://www.kashmirtimes.com/newsdet.aspx?q=27370
In my opinion European countries are being very shortsighted.
In a few years time the original concept of the European Union will only be a past lost dream, and China would be ruling.
I’m beginning to think that our European (not just Maltese) leaders/law-makers are a spineless, brainless and greedy bunch. Take your pick.
It seems that these leaders do not care about whether the face of Europe, its culture, values and progress will change for the worse.
I have no doubt that with this mixed pot of new arrivals, Europe is in for some drastic changes in a few years time – and these will not be for the better.
The dream of the E.U’s founding fathers, Schumann et al, was certainly much different from the direction in which Muscat’s Chinese puppet government is taking Malta.
You are certainly right, Another John, when you say that Muscat and his cronies do not care about the cultural and historical values of Europe.
I can assure you they have absolutely no idea of what these mean.
I dread the day when the US news networks will be bought by Chinese tycoons. The we can forget about this sort of thing:
http://edition.cnn.com/2014/01/08/world/africa/congo-chinese-ivory/index.html