Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/260953
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 16 FEBRUARY 2014 2014 13 How so? Zammit Dimech replies by pointing towards an apparent le- gal inconsistency between the one- year residency condition in the IIP scheme, and the provisions of the Citizenship Act. "In the law course we were taught that if you have subsidiary legisla- tion, the interpretation will be sub- ject to the definitions of the parent act. And the definition of residency, for the purposes of acquiring citi- zenship, is supplied in the Citizen- ship Act, not the legal notice ena- bling the passport scheme." Since 2000 the Citizenship Act has been variously amended. But in practice, where it touches on issues such as duration of residence, Zam- mit Dimech explains how it inter- prets such duration on aggregate. "In the past, the expected period someone would have to resident for before being eligible to citizenship worked out at around 17 years." Here he is distracted by a look of astonishment on my face… "I'm not saying it is a good system; you could certainly argue that the timeframe was excessive. The point, however, is that it was calculated on aggre- gate. An applicant would have to show proof that he or she had spent 17 years in total in the country, even if spread out over a longer period. It's not enough to have an address here for 17 years, if you're spending half the year or more overseas." Yet government has not yet made clear if the one-year period stipu- lated by the amended passport scheme will likewise be calculated on aggregate. "I suspect the EC's legal depart- ment will have studied Maltese citizenship legislation and would be aware of the local system. It will now expect applicants to have to spend one year in total before be- coming eligible – and not one cal- endar year, of which they have only spent a few months actually resid- ing here. I wonder, however, if the Muscat administration intends to implement the law according to the aggregate principle. These are the terms of the agreement with the Commission. Is government being honest and implementing the terms in full? Or will Joseph Muscat fudge this agreement as well?" Here is where he voices his only mild criticism of the Commission's handling of the affair. "I would have preferred it if the Commission in- sisted on a longer period of residen- cy. If the idea is so that applicants form a genuine link or bond with the host country, one year seems a short time. This is also why it is important to respect the aggregate principle: otherwise, one year could become even shorter…" And like Busuttil (or for that mat- ter, Plumpton) Zammit Dimech al- so interprets the EC's involvement as a vindication of the PN's earlier position. "This why we have to go back to the parliamentary debate last November. If you listen to the speeches, you will hear one after another – including my own – urg- ing government to suspend the de- bate. Our position back then was: let's discuss the individual compo- nents of what might be a good initi- ative. I'm not saying this now, with hindsight of the EP vote. We had presented amendments to remove the secrecy clause, and to ensure that there would be a residency component to satisfy international law criteria. Myself, Simon Busuttil, Mario de Marco, Jason Azzopardi… we all said the same thing. Let's stop and reconsider the details. But government was very shortsighted, and repeatedly availed of its large majority to outvote us." Ironically, he adds, the same ma- jority had earlier been kept in the dark about the citizenship scheme: which it now opposes, suggesting that on this issue at least, the Mus- cat administration has all along been in a minority position. And since that time, he goes on, we have made our tortuous way back to all the points the PN had originally raised in November. "I am confident we could have reached an agreement back then and avoided all that happened af- terwards, if only government were willing to listen." The PN is undergoing a restructuring exercise, and is about to undergo its first electoral test under new leadership. Immersed in both challenges, veteran MP Francis Zammit Dimech talks about the 'rejuvenation process' PHOTOGRAPHY BY RAY ATTARD Picking up the pieces