Dutch MP and the General Rapporteur to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe Pieter Omtzigt said that the Maltese government has failed to get the controversy of the golden passport scheme, where citizenship is bought by Russians amongst others, right.
Parliamentary Secretary for Citizenship Alex Muscat insisted on Monday that Malta’s passport scheme is not a ‘golden passport’ scheme, and that Malta will not stop selling passports to wealthy Russians, since the European Union sanctions do not apply to the country's citizenship-by-investment scheme.
Omtzigt said on a Twitter post that because of Malta’s failure to address the issue, “it will be remembered when Malta needs some form of solidarity.”
Omtzigt had long criticised the Maltese government for several shortcomings, declaring the reform of the Maltese law on whistleblower protection as ‘not fit for purpose’, saying that the law does not offer real protection on whistleblowers, and was not in line with the recommendations of the Council of Europe and the EU Directive.
In 2020, Omtzigt decreed that Malta had failed to implement the demands of the Council’s parliamentary assembly in confront of the Council of Europe’s resolution on investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia’s assassination and the rule of law in Malta.
Omtzigt was in charge of following up on the progress made in these implementations, pointing out that the reform package is ‘flawed and incomplete in important respects’, accusing the Maltese government of failing to show willingness to take action.