The European Parliament has just issued this press release: ‘EU citizenship should not be for sale at any price’
Here’s the complete text of a press release just out from the European Parliament’s media office:
EU CITIZENSHIP SHOULD NOT BE FOR SALE AT ANY PRICE, SAYS EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT
EU citizenship must not have a “price tag” attached to it, says the European Parliament in a resolution voted on Thursday. MEPs are concerned about schemes established by various EU member states and in particular Malta, which result in the sale of national, and hence EU, citizenship. Parliament calls on the Commission to state clearly whether these schemes respect the letter and spirit of the EU treaties and EU rules on non-discrimination.
Some member states have introduced schemes which “directly or indirectly” result in the “sale” of EU citizenship to third-country nationals, even though every member state is expected to act responsibly in preserving the Union’s common values and achievements. These are invaluable, and “cannot have a price tag attached to them”, says the resolution, which was passed by 560 votes to 22, with 44 abstentions.
Outright sale of EU citizenship undermines the mutual trust upon which the Union is built, it points out.
Parliament also stresses that the rights conferred by EU citizenship, such as the right to move and reside freely within the EU, should not be treated as a “tradable commodity”. EU citizenship implies having a stake in the EU and depends on a person’s ties with the EU and its member states or on personal ties with EU citizens, says the text.
Furthermore, citizenship-for-investment schemes “only allow the richest third-country nationals to obtain EU citizenship, without any other criteria being considered”, which implies discrimination, Parliament notes.
Malta urged to bring its citizenship scheme into line with EU values
Malta has recently taken steps to introduce a scheme for the outright sale of Maltese citizenship, “which automatically entails the outright sale of EU citizenship as a whole without any residency requirement”, notes the text.
Also, it is not even clear that Maltese citizens will benefit from this scheme, e.g. through extra tax revenue, as the foreign investors concerned will not be required to pay taxes, it notes. “Citizenship involves not only rights but also responsibilities”, MEPs underline.
Parliament calls on Malta to bring its current citizenship scheme into line with EU values. Other member states that have introduced national schemes which allow the direct or indirect sale of EU citizenship should do likewise, it adds.
Are these schemes compatible with EU rules?
Parliament calls on the European Commission to state clearly whether these schemes respect the letter and spirit of the EU treaties and the Schengen Borders Code, as well as EU rules on non-discrimination. It asks the Commission to issue recommendations to prevent such schemes from undermining the EU’s founding values, as well as guidelines on granting access to EU citizenship via national schemes.
Although matters of residency and citizenship are the competence of the member states, MEPs call on them “to be careful when exercising their competences” in this area and to take possible side-effects into account, such as distortion of local housing markets and money laundering.
Ongoing competition for more attractive investment conditions or financial resources may also lead to a lowering of the standards and requirements for obtaining Schengen Area residence permits and EU citizenship, MEPs add.
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Mela dahhaltek fi club ta` membri bl-istess valuri u idejat u afdajtlek ic-cavetta. Inti ta` pastass li int tajt ic-cavetta lil min mhux membru jew kontra taghna. Ifhem Gahan Malti.
Muscat remains defiant. http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20140116/local/muscat-ep-position-noted-but-citizenship-scheme-will-stay.502889#.Utfk0Mu9KSM
Not to mention Henley and Partners’ blatant conflict of interest compounded by monopolistic practice.
He’s screwed. One wonders who Kurt was to convince yesterday, Attard Montalto wouldn’t engage the merits, Mizzi visibly shaken.
Someone asked yesterday where Louis Grech, in charge of European affairs, is. Good question.
I am now waiting for level headed Labourites to get together and demand the resignation of Muscat.
[Daphne – Mela le! Dak se jgibilhom biljun ewro shan shan, hi.]
Mela hergin mill-photocopier?
Joseph Muscat will state:
I am the lord your PM , you will not have any other god PM besides me.
He will soon publish his commandments ( legal notices ) and he will promise us the Promised Land in CHINA if everybody shuts up.
According to Eddy Privitera ‘Dr. Simon Busuttil and his party are the only ones who are attacking the IIP on the argument that it is ” a sale of citizenship’. That was five days ago and before the MLP’s hammering in the EU Parliament by their friends and foe.
https://www.facebook.com/eddy.privitera.9?fref=ts
Now that 900+ (according to Marlene Mizzi) but actually 766 (according to everyone else) representing the EU’s 508 million people have voted against Malta’s sale of citizenship we wait with bated breath to see what sorry excuse Eddy will cough up before he ebbs off again.
Dear Daphne,
Kindly give me your e-mail address.
Thanks
Joseph Micallef
[Daphne – dcgalizia@gmail.com]
Min ghandu mohh biex jifhem, ha jifhem – u jerga’ lura mill-izball.
Anki hmar ghandu widnejn (u x’par daqshiex) biex jisma’ – izda ma jifhimx u, allura, jkompli jghaffeg.
Donnu hekk bi hsiebu jaghmel il-gvern immexxi minn Joseph.
Qalilna li ‘ha nota’, ghaliex jghid li hu gvern li jisma’.
And our dear PM will just go on, regardless.
According to Finance Minister Edward Scicluna, the sale of EU passports has absolutely nothing to do with shoring up Malta’s Budget. That was a few weeks back.
Today Joseph Muscat said “This programme will bring about almost €1 billion for a posterity fund that will go for innovation, environment, hospitals, medicine, healthcare, infrastructure and education, that will improve people’s quality of life and create jobs,”
So according to the Prime Minister Edward Scicluna is wrong. The money is required for shoring up Malta’s Budget.
Better Finance Ministers opted out when they realised they were going to simply become rubber stamps – remember VAT?
Edward has an honourable option, he can say – I’m Out.
In trying to justify that the EU is bullying Malta, a lot of individuals are bringing up the fact that the adjusted scheme is now quite similar to the Austrian one (which is debatable); questioning why Austria got away with it and we didn’t.
[Daphne – It is not even remotely similar, and the suggestion that it is provoked a strong and angry reaction from an Austria foreign ministry official.]
Why this issue created more furore in Malta is simple, when interpreting it within the context of Maltese political history. It is backed by the same prime minister who barely 10 years ago was vehemently against EU membership, later admitting that it was beneficial ‘in hindsight’, and only after years ‘benefitting from it’ as an MEP.
People who believed his change of heart are now realising what was obvious to others – that it was just part of a vote-catching strategy, and are left wondering where his sentiments really lie.
This scheme suggests that there was no real change of heart, and his pledge to make the most out of EU membership was only driven by opportunism, and not by real conviction.
It’s almost like Dr. Muscat saw an opportunity to try and justify why he was against membership in the first place – ‘proving himself right’ by showing that the EU is bullying Malta.
“Ridtu l-EU? Hemm ara l-EU xi tfisser, tibbulijana ghax makku u tindahlilna fis-sovranita'”.
Most Maltese Eurosceptics are swallowing this hook, line and sinker.
The only way to stop Muscat now is to hold a referendum. I urge the PN to start collecting signatures. This madness must be stopped.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20140116/local/muscat-ep-position-noted-but-citizenship-scheme-will-stay.502889#.UtgA62anzMI
And Muscat’s reaction? Basically he is saying ‘We have heard the EU, now bugger off and I shall do what I want’. Xi hnizrija ta’ Prim Ministru ghandna!
Any decent PM would have flown straight to Brussels for a talk with Vivienne Reding to see how the scheme could be modified in line with the vote taken today, and save further censure.
But of course ‘decent’ and ‘Muscat’ cannot be placed in the same sentence.
So this is it. Muscat thumbed his nose at the entire EP and Commission. I was still half-hoping he’d see sense.
This is the first time in my life I’m genuinely ashamed of being Maltese. We do not deserve to be members of the EU. They’d be right in kicking us out.
Thank you Labour and thank you switchers.
Joseph Muscat and his chosen few knew only too well what they were doing and that is why no mention was ever made of any citizenship schemes before the election.
However, I am sure that the extent of opposition to their proposal surprised them and exceeded their calculations.
Why is the PM panicking? Why did he give himself away while speaking in Qormi about two days ago?
There is something more than the billion+ he intends to make through his sale of Maltese-EU passports. What if he made promises to ‘individuals’ before the election that would get their EU passport and now he sees that this vote might send warning signals to them? What if his plan was being undermined by the EP debate?
Many overlook the fact that the PL had millions at its disposal for the electoral campaign. What if some of that money came from these ‘individuals’ who are after a Maltese passport?
Surely, if he made promises against handsome payments, one would understand why he is in a panic and why he is insisting that the Shame-Scheme will go ahead irrespective of what the EU says.
Another oversight by many, including Times of Malta and Malta Today, is Dr. Muscat’s visit to China soon after he became party leader. No details have yet been published of the “agreement” he signed with the Chinese government.
What if the “agreement” signed contains in it a promise of making available to Chinese “businessmen” a Maltese-EU passport? What if the PL received handsome money “donations” from the Chinese Communist party for making such a promise?
Let us not forget, this passport-for-sale-scheme was only mad public after the election and not before. People should seriously be asking why was it kept secret from all of us. Why was it conceived and planned in secrecy? Why did the PM and his cronies kept it under the carpet until they were sure of the electoral victory?
No wonder the PL had a better campaign than the PN. The latter was definitely short of money.
Also this morning on PBS. Joe Vella Bonnici stated that any decision by the EP will not change their work at Identity Malta.
So, even after such an astounding message through today’s vote, is it going to be business as usual? Dawn jaraw sa mnieherhom. Don’t they realize that they have to work and collaborate with their colleagues at the EP on other issues as well?
And where are some people hiding? Manuel Mallia, Louis Grech and Edward Scicluna, to name but a few.
I wonder.
How many EU passports have been sold already and in total secrecy these last few months? Many moons have passed us by ever since our prime bloated twerp adjusted the law to allow for his latest act of desperation to become licit. Exactly how much talent has been already collected and stashed?
I wonder.
It is pertinent to note that all those crying foul at the Nationalist Party for ‘reporting’ Malta to the EU and ‘humiliating’ the country are ignoring one fundamental flaw in their argument.
Let’s for the sake of the argument accept the ridiculous suggestion that the PN is so strong that it controls the EU institutions and the global media. If there was nothing wrong with the programme, all the PN would have done was to create further awareness about the programme, which in itself would have been positive and nothing to be ashamed of.
On the contrary, the fact that these same people are saying that the PN shamed Malta at an international level is in itself an admission that there is something to be ashamed of, i.e. that the programme as has been proposed is totally wrong.
And the ball starts rolling:
http://www.faz.net/aktuell/politik/malta-eu-parlament-ruegt-verkauf-von-staatsbuergerschaften-12754797.html
It is shameful how after years of damaging Malta’s progress by seeking to keep it out of Europe, Muscat is now damaging the European project with Malta in Europe.
The man is dangerous. He has no principles, and will do anything for power.
Over the next few years, he will try to buy his way on any matter with the proceeds from the sale of EU citizenship.
How can anyone feel safe under a government led this way?
And why would anyone want to invest and work in a country where the prime minister earns 1 billion euros in 5 years or less by simply printing and selling Maltese passports?
Ara dis is simple.Tejk de bleks or we sell yor passport
Rather than making Malta a showcase of Europe (“l-aqwa fl-Ewropa”), Muscat has made us the back door of Europe, where the people who enter or exit do not even want to be noticed.
What’s worse, if you show the money at the back door, you are nodded in. If you are an African immigrant, you are sent back.
Where is Peppi?
Muscat has taken note but will proceed with the scheme notwithstanding the fact that Malta and Europe have spoken against it. By his fucked up reasoning, if Muscat cannot give EU membership to whoever he jolly well likes, then he’ll damn well try to take it away from the rest of us.
On the other hand, Busuttil has been pussyfooting with Muscat for much longer than he should have, when instead, he should have already rallied the troops to collect sufficient signatures to call for a referendum on this issue and let the people have their say.
Are there no politicians with both balls and brains left in the Nationalist party? This is not so much about waiting for the PL to implode (which it will not) but about taking a stance, in front of both the Maltese and our European peers by showing that we are not only talking about being against the sale of citizenship but that we are actually doing something about it.
The right time to act was the very moment when the law was enacted. Screw any notion of civil discussion between the opposition and government.
We will now be dragged further down the gutter with Muscat persisting with his (masters’) scheme, which as an after thought, is a sure way of geting us booted out of the EU without him ever having to say as much, thus avoiding the possibility of the Maltese having their say on the matter.
Just like the Emperor’s new clothes, Malta will remain alone, gloriously dressed in nothing other than its sovereignty.
Why do I get this feeling that the prime minister is forging ahead with his scheme to get back at the EU for not helping us (according to him) with immigration ?
Just look at the Maltese-PL-MEP on this video. What a shame!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9kLr-O95bw
Now I am totally convinced that Joseph Muscat insists on going on with this scheme to get us kicked out of the European Union. He has never accepted the European concept and at all costs wants to get Malta out.
But then he would not sell any passports. The EU is the goose which lays the golden eggs. Would he want to kill it?
He insists on going on with this scheme thinking that he can get away with it and because he is too stupid to realise the enormous harm he is doing to Malta.
The last time we had a turbulent start to a New Year was when Mintoff was Prime Minister. He had a habit of giving us the bad news at Christmas.
Looks like Prime Minister Muscat is following his footsteps.
[Daphne – We had a pretty turbulent start to the new year, last year…]
http://www.lastampa.it/2014/01/16/esteri/malta-mette-in-vendita-la-cittadinanza-stop-ue-non-un-oggetto-di-scambio-7V2Iqd4pMpcrdmRU4iuELM/pagina.html
WOW !!! WHAT A FUCKING BRILLIANT ‘ KANINK PLEN !!! WELL DONE, JOSEPH – BRING IN THE CLOWNS !!! We never realized in our wildest dreams how prophetic those words would be.
Listening to our PM saying earlier today that the IIP Funds will be used for projects including infrastructure, education etc… it became more obvious that:
a) the Chinese will spend X million to buy X passports;
b) the government will announce large infrastructural projects like Malta-Gozo bridge/tunnel, schools etc;
c) the Chinese will tender and ho ho ho;
d) the Chinese will get their money back – and more!
who is smelling the coffee now.
A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government.
– Edward Abbey