Greens welcome IIP amendments, slam ‘childish’ politicians

While lambasting the government's "obstinacy" which damaged Malta's reputation, Alternattiva Demokratika welcomed the latest amendments to the controversial citizenship scheme, the Individual Investor Programme (IIP)

"We are happy to see that residence has now become a condition before the granting of Maltese and EU citizenship.  It is good to see that such changes will eliminate any breaches of the EU treaties, in particular the article 4.3 on the principle of loyal cooperation," AD chairperson Arnold Cassola said.

However, the Greens' chairperson deplored the "childish and obstinate behaviour of our political leaders who have caused serious damage to our country's reputation during the past three months."

Cassola called for clear procedures to be put in place to ensure that people who "contribute to the country's development" and "children with no nationality, who though not rich contribute to this country's well being" are eligible to apply and be granted citizenship according to clear guidelines and beyond the home affairs minister's discretion.

"May this serve as a good lesson to Maltese politicians for the future: always put our country's interest before your egoistic political party needs."

AD also noted that before commenting further on the third version of the IIP, it will wait cautiously to peruse all technicalities of this new agreement.

Yesterday, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat announced that he had reached an agreement with the European Commission over the scheme. These talks followed the outrage caused by the scheme, with the European Parliament calling for amendments to the IIP.

Muscat yesterday announced that the scheme will now include for the first time a minimum residency period requirement of 12 months. The minimum requirement of 12 months kick off from when the applicant purchases or rents a property. The previous capping of 1,800 applicants has also been scrapped, Muscat said.

Following yesterday's announcement, Opposition leader Simon Busuttil said that the agreement the proved the Nationalist Party's harsh criticism right. Busuttil said the PN would give a detailed reaction to the agreement once the full details of the amended scheme were published, however he noted that there were differences between what Muscat and the commission declared in separate statements.