Updated | Prime Minister says new citizenship scheme will net Malta €30 million

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat says his government will net €30 million from the sale of citizenship to some 65 prospective entrants under a naturalisation programme.

Muscat today defended the scheme, saying the individual investor programme (IIP) will put Malta at the frontline of countries with Spain, Austria and Latvia with their own lucrative citizenship programmes.

"This is the difference between a prehistoric economy and one which looks ahead. We have to choose whether to be the last ones to wake up... or be on the frontline just as we were back in the 1990s when we launched our financial services industry," Muscat said.

The prime minister said the €30 million would go a long way towards creating economic growth. "I'm not expecting any problems from the EU on this," Muscat said.

During a meeting with the Union Haddiema Maghqudin, Muscat said that part of the €30 million income would go towards the financing of a National Development Fund.

"We want to introduce a culture by which the government starts saving money, investing it and making use of the return to fund social projects. This is the economic outlook that will lead us towards a modern economy," he insisted.

The draft bills were published in the House of Representatives yesterday.

DOWNLOAD Maltese Citizenship Amendment Bill

BLOG James Debono on cash-for-citizenship

Alternattiva Demokratika, the Green Party, criticised the move. "Ten years ago Alfred Sant and Joseph Muscat's Labour Party tried to deprive me and thousands of fellow Maltese from voting because we were living parts of our lives abroad. Now, ten years later, Joseph Muscat and Alfred Sant's Labour Party is offering Maltese citizenship for sale which could potentially translate into a vote in the Maltese national elections to foreigners on condition they pay €650,000. What irony? Today, it would seem that human values do not count any longer. The prevalent political philosophy is: money can buy you anything."

Cassola had been secretary-general of the European Federation of Green Parties in 2003, and residing in Brussels, when the Labour Party filed a writ to have his right to vote in the 2003 elections and EU referendum revoked, claiming he had not spent enough time in Malta to satisfy electoral rules on residence. The writ was defeated in a Constitutional decision that redifined the way residence had to be interpreted in the General Elections Act.

The Maltese government is planning to sell Maltese citizenship to foreign investors, as part of an Individual Investor Programme in new amendments to the Citizenship Act.

New applicants under this programme will have to pay €650,000, of which €10,000 will be a non-refundable deposit, as well as €25,000 for their spouses and individual children below 18 years of age; or €50,000 for dependant parents aged 55 or over, and unmarried children aged between 18 and 25.

According to the draft bill, the IIP will allow "for the grant of citizenship by a certificate of naturalization to foreign individual and families who contribute to the economic development of Malta."

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat had told Bloomberg in an interview that his government was interested "in bringing in all those who are reputable people, who are willing to take up residence in Malta."

"We however, don't do the hard selling. An address in Malta, residence in Malta, comes at a premium. So we are not into selling this right cheap. We have limited space in our country so we have to choose people carefully, no matter what nation they come from. In the next few months we will be issuing what I believe will be new exciting programs on residency and even citizenship. Again, due diligence and choosing the right type of person will be paramount."

Any dependants of the applicant - spouse, children or parents - must be certified not to be suffering from any contagious disease and must be in good health, according to the due diligence application form.

The programme will be specifically addressed at non-EU citizens who do not avail themselves of other tax exile schemes and property acquisition programmes.

Applicants must have a clean criminal record, and cannot be considered a "potential threat to Malta's independence, national security or reputation".

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat will also appoint a regulator - a former judge or magistrate, a former Attorney General or permanent secretary, or someone who has practiced law for the past 12 years - to oversee the correct implementation of the IIP.