White Paper on party financing to be published tomorrow

A white paper regulating party financing will be published tomorrow, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat announced this morning.

Addressing a Q&A session with party delegates, Muscat said the new law would also bind party candidates with regulations on how to finance their campaigns.

"It's about time that donations made to the party are regulated. We gave enough time for the PN to address its financial problems. We waited until now because we did not want anyone to accuse us of trying to put spokes in their wheels," he said.

He added that a party financing law was part of the reform that would give a transparent framework to Maltese politics.

The Prime Minister set much store in describing the Individual Investor Programme as a scheme which placed Malta at the top in innovative programmes as other countries would now be following the government's footsteps.

"Our ambition is to lead while others follow. And we have shown this by facts. The citizenship by investment topped our agenda because we want to change the face of the country," he said.

Muscat added that the Opposition's mask had now fallen: "How can one be against something in principle and not? Four days after the EU sanctioned our programme, the Opposition has not yet declared its position."

He reiterated the Labour government's ambition was the world.

"Our ambition is the world, Malta as a global model. Everyone knows we come up with innovative ideas. They might criticise us, but they still copy us. And that is what places us one step ahead of everyone," Muscat said.

"We have the best citizenship programme in the world, a programme which is sanctioned by the EU."

On Tuesday, the Prime Minister is holding a meeting with MCESD, asking them to come up with proposals on how to best spend funds coming in from the Individual Investment Programme.

"It's all about new jobs, improving the infrastructure and fighting poverty. This is how the community will benefit from this programme," he said.

Replying to questions covering various sectors, Muscat said the budgetary measure on free childcare centres will be implemented in April.

He said that the government would continue supporting small businesses to ensure economic growth, which in turn would provide new places of work.

"5,000 new jobs were created during our first year... half of which were filled by foreigners," Muscat said, explaining that the trend was that Maltese refused to carry out certain jobs either because they were not well-paid or because they did not have the necessary skills.