The damage that the Nationalist Party has done to our country abroad on the golden passport scheme shall never be forgotten, the Labour Party said Thursday.

Malta was forced to completely scrap its golden passport scheme after the European Court of Justice ruled that Malta's citizenship by investment infringed EU law and amounted to "the commercialisation of the grant of nationality of a member state." On Wednesday, Parliament sprinted through a Bill looking to enact the changes forced upon Malta by the European Court of Justice's ruling earlier this April.

Citizenship by investment has been one of the excuses that the Nationalist Party has chosen to attack our country in European institutions, the PL said.

In Opposition, the Nationalist Party always plays the same games: it consistently attempts to undermine the democratic choice of the people, the PL said.

The Labour Party added it is proud of the wealth achieved through the investor citizenship programme over the past years, especially in moments when our country was emerging from the stalemate of the Nationalist Government.

The same programme was also crucial at an unexpected time of a global pandemic that wreaked havoc across the world.

The PL Government has turned a challenge into an opportunity because while making amendments that brought our country in line with the ruling of the European Court of Justice, it did not remove anything from its right to decide on citizenship as a sovereign country, the PL said.

Finally, the Labour Party welcomed the fact that Parliament has approved this reform, which aims to keep attracting to our country projects and contributions of added value in line with the 2050 vision.