Malta has scrapped its golden passport scheme.

After years of scrutiny and debate on whether the economic benefits were worth the damage caused to Malta's reputation, given that selling Maltese citizenship was tantamount to selling EU citizenship, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) had, in April, ruled that the scheme was in violation of European Union law.

The European Commission had initiated the court case against the country. In its ruling, the ECJ agreed with the European Commission, saying that Malta's scheme amounts to "the commercialisation of the granting of the nationality of a member state and by extension that of union citizenship." The ECJ ruled therefore that Malta had failed to fulfil its Treaty of the EU obligations.

It was a damning moral indictment of placing profit above principle. The decision came after years of warnings. Schemes like this, and Malta was not the only country in the world to have one, render the acquisition of a national passport as a "mere commercial transaction." What message does that send about the country's view of citizenship? Not a good one.

It should be said that while the scheme did bring in plenty of funds for Malta, it was ethically and morally wrong. People who attain citizenship should be persons with real ties to the country, or who want to and can do real good for Malta. Citizenship should not be for sale.

The government always held that there were serious checks and balances, but the suspicion and concern remained.

The government, following the court's decision, later announced that it would be introducing a bill that would scrap the scheme and expand upon the attainment of citizenship by merit.

Earlier this week, Parliament sped through the bill, voting it through second reading stage all the way till the end, thus bringing an end to the golden passport scheme.

Home Affairs Minister Byron Camilleri said that what was being presented in the bill already aligns with existing laws, addresses all criticisms on the golden passport scheme by the ECJ (Case C-181/23) earlier this April, and ensures that the granting of Maltese citizenship remains a national competence. Through these changes, all transactional/commercial elements of the previous regime have been discarded, Minister Camilleri said.

Both sides of Parliament voted in favour of the bill.

The statement by the Labour Party that the Nationalist Party has damaged the country abroad on the scheme is incorrect.

The scheme itself was damaging. The damage was caused by those who came up with the scheme.

The country is doing well economically, and should generate funds through real economic success, not through get rich quick schemes, so to speak. The sale of passports was damaging to the idea of what it meant to be Maltese. Its time to move forward.