International news website Politico has placed Malta under the microscope, highlighting criticism of Malta's passport sale scheme.
Prime Minister Joseph Muscat's Public Relations Officer Kurt Farrugia told Politico that 700 passports have been issued to non-EU nationals since the programme's launch in 2014, generating €200 million.
"The programme requires a €650,000 contribution to a national development fund and investing €150,000 in government stocks or bonds. A spouse or a child costs up to €50,000".
The news portal quoted a number of MEPs on the matter. "If I didn't have a great deal of love and sympathy as well as respect for Malta as a country, I would say what I was inclined to say two years ago: These are the practices of a banana republic which must be rigorously counteracted within the EU," said Frank Engel, a centre-right MEP from Luxembourg.
Senior Socialist MEP Ana Gomes, said that schemes like this "put at risk the integrity of the Schengen system. I am absolutely disgusted," she told Politico, adding that she has demanded an investigation by the EU Commission to look into member state investor schemes, not just Malta's."
Latvian MEP Robert Zile, who is also a former Finance Minister, is quoted as having said; "Citizenship is something that has to be earned, not simply handed out to people with deep pockets". He also said that the scheme may also help defy sanctions imposed on Russia by Europe, "as a large chunk, if not a majority, of those who get Maltese citizenship through investment in the country are of Russian origin."
Politico also states mentions that in Malta, government was criticised for making the list of foreign nationals who acquired citizenship almost unintelligible, given that individuals were listed by their first name and did not include their countries of origin.
The article also quotes a Conservative politician in the UK, Andrew Rosindell, who sits on his parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee. He said that "Malta is effectively deciding U.K. immigration policy. Clearly, there are going to be security concerns in terms of criminality, in terms of people coming in who perhaps are not desirable in our own country."
Politico also states that in response to this, a Maltese government spokesman "dismissed such concerns by saying other European countries have similar routes to citizenship and are less rigorous in their vetting. When asked, he declined to specify which countries he meant".
Politico explains that Cyprus and Austria are the only other European countries besides Malta to offer a direct route to EU citizenship through investment.
"Eric Major, the CEO of Henley & Partners, confirmed that Russia, former Soviet republics and the Middle East are the main markets for the passports".
"This is a very privileged offering for the world elite," Major told Politico.
Full article here