‘Abela Priorities His Wallet’: PN MEP Backs Passport Scheme Ban As PL MEPs Remain Silent On Votes Against
PN MEP David Casa has called out Prime Minister Robert Abela for putting his own interest before that of the country after Labour Party MEPs voted against a European Parliament resolution looking to ban golden passports and visas.
Last week, the European Parliament voted overwhelmingly in favour of the ban. However, PL MEPs Alex Agius Saliba, Josianne Cutajar, Alfred Sant and Cyrus Engerer were the only Maltese and Social Democrats to vote against it. None of the PL MEPs have responded to questions to explain their vote.
“If citizenship by investment was a controversial or divisive issue years ago, today its suspension is totally uncontroversial,” David Casa told Lovin Malta.
“There are good reasons why selling European passports is a bad idea, especially without the most stringent of safeguards and the necessary transparency. The Maltese scheme had neither. Journalists and my colleagues in the Nationalist Party fought for years to improve the transparency of the IIP scheme and to make it acceptable to our European counterparts.”
“But successive Labour governments persisted in doing absolutely nothing about it. Even after dodgy figures made it through their ‘rigid, independent due diligence’. Even after loopholes were exposed in the process. Even after Keith Schembri was exposed allegedly taking kickbacks from the sale of Maltese passports.”
“It is obvious that neither Joseph Muscat nor Robert Abela have had any interest in being on the right side of that fight, or we wouldn’t be internationally greylisted.”
Casa reiterated that before Putin’s invasion, the golden passport scheme had already posed an obstacle in the fight against money laundering, tax evasion and corruption and that now it is undermining the sanctions in place against Russia.
“It is flagrantly obvious that Abela prioritises nothing more than his wallet. He is unfit to operate a highly sensitive passport scheme, let alone a European government in a time of crisis. My vote in the plenary session reflects all this. I could not vote otherwise on my good conscience,” he said.
Under the EP proposal, golden passports, like Malta’s citizenship-by-investment scheme, to be phased out by 2025.
Golden residency and visa programmes will also be addressed through specific measures targeting anti-money laundering and regulating the intermediaries.The parliament voted for a legislative report calling for the ban with an overwhelming majority of 595, 74 abstentions and 12 votes against.
Golden passports have fallen under the microscope once again following the Russian government’s invasion of Ukraine, given the high number of Russian nationals who have made use of the scheme. Malta has since suspended its programme to Russians and Belarussians.
This article is part of a content series called Ewropej. This is a multi-newsroom initiative part-funded by the European Parliament to bring the work of the EP closer to the citizens of Malta and keep them informed about matters that affect their daily lives. This article reflects only the author’s view. The European Parliament is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains.
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