The sale of citizenship is against European values and the practice must be stopped immediately, according to Ingeborg Grässle, the chairperson of the European Parliament’s Committee on Budgetary Control.

Speaking in Friday’s edition of Die Welt, one of Germany’s largest daily newspapers, in a feature on Malta’s citizenship scheme, the German MEP said, “Citizenship in exchange for money is cynical. This has nothing to do with European values and this practice must be stopped immediately.

“EU governments should, as soon as possible, develop common criteria that determine binding on all member states on who should be granted a passport. It cannot be that rich people from non-EU countries can simply buy EU citizenship while poor people fleeing their homes because of hunger and violence drown in the Mediterranean.”

The European Parliament had famously voted practically unanimously against Malta’s citizenship programme, only for Malta and the European Commission to finally agree on a compromise which saw Malta introduce a shady one-year residency clause and further investments in Maltese property and government stocks and bonds.

Muscat continues with passport road show in New York, Singapore

Die Welt’s caustic analysis of the passport programme could very well have been prompted by a Henley & Partners press release earlier in the week that said 200 people from nearly 30 countries have applied for Maltese passports, with over €200 million in capital having been attracted to Malta in the last six months.

After having recently pitched Maltese citizenship in London and Miami, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat is next due to make similar sales pitches in New York next month and in Singapore in October, according to Henley & Partners.

The September event will be the Henley & Partners’ Global Citizenship Seminar being held at the Four Seasons Hotel in New York on 10 September. According to Henley & Partners, the event “will focus on the significant international trend of increasing mobility and acceptance of multiple citizenships”.

The Singapore event will be held on 29 and 30 October at the Fullerton Hotel, which, again according to Henley & Partners, will cover “the key developments in the area of residence and citizenship planning and provides first-hand information from the industry leader, top-tier international service providers and governments”.

According to Henley & Partners, “Over 200 applications for citizenship have been received since the programme’s launch in early 2014, with a number already at the Due Diligence phase. This represents a commitment of foreign direct investment into Malta of over €200 million over the last six months.

The company quotes Identity Malta chief executive officer Jonathan Cardona as saying of Henley & Partners’ role, “Their excellent services are attracting to Malta the type of individuals that the government wanted to target through the IIP, with the potential of significant investment in our country.”

Many applicants started the IIP process intending to rent property in Malta, Henley & Partners said, but they are now considering purchasing, having spent time on the islands. Mr Cardona was also quoted as saying that a number of applicants were opting to buy property.

He added that the investment interest was quite wide-ranging, from hotels and real estate, to factories, IT and the film industry.

Contract shrouded in secrecy

Keeping the contract the government signed with Henley & Partners a secret actually serves the public interest more than publishing it, the Home Affairs Ministry told this newspaper recently when it refused a Freedom of Information Request to publish it.

The contract made Henley & Partners “concessionaires” of the Individual Investor Programme, through which wealthy individuals can effectively purchase Maltese citizenships for themselves and their immediate family provided certain conditions are met.

The ministry cited a number of other reasons when it refused to accede to the request, including that publishing the contract could see the government incur legal action for breach of confidence, and that it would have a “substantial adverse effect on the ability of the government to manage the Maltese economy”.

The Nationalist Party in opposition is also seeking the publication of the contract, through Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee, but the government’s refusal to accede to the request suggests that the PN will be equally unsuccessful in its quest.

In a ruling last May, Speaker Anglu Farrugia had said that the Public Affairs Committee had the right to demand the contract, dismissing the argument that it could not be discussed because of a court decree.

But the backing of at least one government MP would be required for the committee to actually demand the publication of the contract: given the government’s reasons to refuse to provide it to The Malta Independent on Sunday, it is highly unlikely that it will do so.