Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/241771
6 News maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 15 JANUARY 2014 Muscat's 'golden passport' set for hammering from MEPs Top, left to right: Hannes Swoboda, Veronique Mathieu Houillon, Wim ven de Camp, Guy Verhofstadt, Manfred Weber, Dani Cohn Bendit, and Dennis De Jong CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 But there are divergent viewpoints on how the sale of passports should be conducted. Dutch socialist MEP, Dennis de Jong, said that EU member states should protest Malta's sale of citizenship instead of having the European Commission regulate who can become a naturalised citizen of member states. While De Jong is a member of the United Green Left, which gathers the radical left, the head of the Labour Party's European family, Hannes Swoboda of the European socialists, has said the citizenship sale "undermines European values". De Jong, who disagrees with the citizenship sale, has said that member states should threaten to stop the admission of Malta's IIP citizens, rather than grant Brussels the competence of who should be an EU citizen. "There should be a debate on the recognition of passports," de Jong suggested in his blog, saying that not everyone who buys a passport may be eligible to enter the Netherlands. Under Malta's IIP rules, applicants with criminal backgrounds or proceedings pending against them, are ineligible to purchase a Maltese passport, which also includes the acquisition of a €350,000 property and €150,000 in government stocks. But De Jong said that Malta was hoping to raise €1 billion from a passport sale that he described as being "anti-social". "People across the Mediterranean seek asylum in Malta as it's the first land they encounter in their crossing, but rich criminals are more than welcome. Sheer class (in)justice. Incidentally, more and more member states are promoting similar schemes and the Netherlands even allows a millionaire to get a residence permit if you invest at least €1.25 million in the Dutch business community." The European Parliament's resolution, whatever the outcome, has no binding effect on Malta, which retains the right to determine its own naturalisation rules. "The EU is not a federal state and it's the member states who decide who gets naturalised and under what conditions," de Jong said. Strasbourg debate All is set for a heated debate in Strasbourg on the sale of citizenship by Malta, with a vote scheduled to be taken tomorrow. The leader of the Socialist Group in the European Parliament, Hannes Swoboda, yesterday morning called on the EU to establish common rules to govern the granting of European citizenship. "The granting of citizenship should not be treated solely as something in the remit of member states as it involved the sale of EU passports," Swoboda said, while criticising the fact that Malta was offering citizenship for the wealthy while taking a tough position on asylum seekers. In other comments, former Belgian prime minister Guy Verhofstadt, a Liberal MEP, described the IIP as "crazy", while Dany Cohn-Bendit, cochairman of the European Greens, said the scheme was "ridiculous" as it went against European treaties. The delegation leader of the Dutch christian-democratic party (CDA) in the EPP Group, Wim van de Camp MEP said he wanted the European Commission to take a closer look at this case. "The EU member states should actually have more or less the same criteria for giving passports. One criteria could be that the person has to invest in the country and be obliged to live there for a number of years. "The Netherlands imposes certain conditions for giving a residence permit, Malta sells passports. There is a fundamental difference there. "The sale of nationality and citizenship will be used by populist parties in Europe to argue against open borders. They will judge asylum seekers and boat refugees in the same way as they judge rich foreigners." The EPP Group coordinator of the LIBE Committee, MEP Veronique Mathieu Houillon, said she was shocked at the decision to sell passports without a residency requirement. "I wonder what they want to achieve with such a reform: an open-door policy to money laundering? Not only that it does not bring anything to the Maltese citizens but it also undermines the European citizenship. "The European citizenship entails rights and duties: it materialises our common project and it is one of the pillars of the European Union. It is not good at all that European citizenship is now on sale. The Maltese government is betraying the mutual trust enjoyed between the European member states, something that we have been trying to build for many years." Green Party reaction Alternattiva Demokratika chairperson Arnold Cassola yesterday also said that Muscat's IIP was causing undue damage to Malta's reputation. "The European Socialists are embarrassed by their Maltese colleague's scheme whilst the EPP and the European Liberals are openly condemning the Maltese government in their resolutions. Despite the fact that Muscat has created serious discrimination between rich 'high value' foreigners and normal 'low value' foreigners, as well as insulting the normal average Maltese worker that earns €15,000 a year plus their foreign spouses, who can only apply for a Maltese passport after five years of marriage as not being of 'high calibre' because they are not millionaires, we European Greens have refrained from specifically condemning and mentioning Malta in our resolution because the Maltese people are not to be blamed for the incompetence of their leaders." Carmel Cacopardo, AD deputy chairman, stated that both Maltese and European Greens considered the granting of national citizenship on the basis of financial capability as undermining the spirit of mutual trust in citizenship matters. "This might have huge implications for free movement, voting rights and the visa-waiver programmes that benefit all EU citizens. The sale of citizenship scheme is a betrayal of the spirit of Malta's political commitments as expressed in the Schengen agreement. "Whilst it is to early to state where this will lead to, it is clear that the quasi-unanimity at the European Parliament signifies that that there may be serious political consequences in the near future. It is time for Joseph Muscat to start thinking before he acts." Socialists sign cross-party resolution on IIP The Socialist Group, home to the four Labour Maltese MEPs in the European Parliament, has joined forces with the European People's Party (EPP), the Liberals (ALDE) and the Greens to co-sign a cross party joint resolution on 'EU Citizenship for Sale'. "The cross-party resolution calls on Malta to put its citizenship scheme in line with EU values and underlines its concern with this way of getting citizenship in Malta and emphasises that any such national citizenship schemes undermine the very concept of European citizenship," Nationalist MEP Roberta Metsola said. Sources in the Socialists & Democrats Group, which is led by Hannes Swoboda, said the S&D chief had "deplored the fact that two MEPs from Malta were attacking Malta" during the group meeting discuss- ing the cross-party resolution. The sources claimed that Swoboda had protested against the lobbying of S&D members. The indications are that the S&D Group will be pushing amendments so that while the EP will criticise the citizenship scheme, this should not be at the expense of Malta. Alternattiva Demokratika chairperson Arnold Cassola also said today that he had contributed to the drafting of the European Green Party's position, and lobbied for the removal of any direct reference to Malta. In a statement, the Labour Party said that socialist MEPs had managed to change the original wording of the first draft resolution, which they described as being "harshly worded" and calling on the European Parliament to condemn the Maltese citizenship scheme. "Nationalist MEPs David Casa and Roberta Metsola have insisted in their campaign against Malta... many socialist MEPs deplored the campaign they waged against their own country, because they cannot understand why they single out Malta from all EU member states have citizenship and residency programmes." Labour is claiming "many" S&D delegations from various member states, and MEPs from other political groups, are supporting the Maltese government's position. "It is astounding that the resolution was co-signed by the Socialist group in the EP at the same time as the Labour Party in Malta issued a statement claiming the Socialists here understood Malta's position - Labour MEPs really have no idea what is going here," Nationalist MEP and head of the PN delegation David Casa said. The MEPs said the resolution includes "strong language that highlights that rights conferred through EU citizenship are based on human dignity and should not be bought or sold at any price." The resolution calls for the European Commission to assess the various citizenship schemes in light of European values and notes that EU Citizenship implies a stakeholding with the Union. The resolution comes after days of tough negotiations involving numerous MEPs from across the political divide. The resolution will be debated tomorrow and be voted upon on Thursday. In a joint statement MEPs David Casa and Roberta Metsola said that Joseph Muscat's insistence on steaming ahead with the Individual Investor Programme had led "to Malta's name dragged through the mud. Even if Joseph Muscat has ignored all attempts to reason, perhaps he will now listen to his own Party in the European Parliament." The two MEPs also said that despite the political attacks on them, they would continue to defend "the interests of the majority of the population that wants no part in this scheme." "What we are saying here is that this this scheme is being pushed through 'not in our name'. Once more we appeal to the Prime Minister - you are the only one that can stop this damage being done to our country: amend the scheme and do it immediately."