Brussels, 30/01/2014 (Agence Europe) - After much discussion at the start of the week, Malta and the European Commission managed to come to an agreement, on Wednesday 29 January, on the modalities of the programme for purchasing Maltese passports set up by Valetta at the beginning of the year, the Commission announced in a press release.
On 29 January, the European Commission and representatives of the government of Malta held a meeting in which the Maltese representatives presented their intentions to amend their Individual Investor Programme. A condition of residence in Malta was set for those purchasing future passports, which the government proposed at €650,000 (while fulfilling several other conditions such as obtaining a property). No certificate of naturalisation will be issued unless the applicant provides proof that he/she has resided in Malta for a period of at least 12 months immediately preceding the day of issuing the certificate of naturalisation, the Commission states.
This requirement therefore toughens up the system that Malta announced last November and that was meant to help remedy Malta's budget difficulties. The EPP Group at the European Parliament very quickly seized on the issue, however, and called for a plenary debate - which was held on 15 January and resulted in a resolution condemning this initiative of the Maltese Socialist government. During the debate, European Commissioner for Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship Viviane Reding also said how little she thought of this Maltese arrangement which, in her view, was selling the values of the EU and undermined the principle of sincere cooperation between member states. Last week, the Commission prepared a series of legal questions for Malta in order to assess the means offered by the Treaty to launch possible legal proceedings (the conditions for granting and withdrawing nationality are an exclusively national competence but sincere cooperation is stipulated in the Treaties). (SP/transl.fl)