Update 3 - Adds new Labour Party statement below - The political groups in the European Parliament have agreed on a joint motion on citizenship which will be debated in a plenary sitting of the parliament tomorrow.

The text expresses concern over the Maltese citizenship scheme and calls on Malta to bring its scheme in line with European values. 

Informed sources said that the socialist MEPs on Thursday, while voting for the motion, will move amendments to delete the clauses in the motion specifically mentioning Malta or vote against them.

Arnold Cassola, leader of Alternattiva Demokratika, said on TimesTalk that it was regrettable that the motion condemned Malta three times, showing the seriousness of this issue.

The joint motion follows hours of discussion by the representatives of the various groups. The groups had earlier published their own draft texts. No reference to Malta had been made in the original texts prepared by the socialists and the greens. 

PN Deputy leader Mario de Marco said the government's scheme had united European groups in condemnation, and it was giving the mistaken impression abroad that Malta was a bankrupt country, something which discouraged investment. The scheme was also undermining confidence in the financial sector with comparisons being made to countries in the Caribbean.

Owen Bonnici, Parliamentary Secretary for Justice, said the citizenship scheme would attract high net worth persons who would invest in Malta. Furthermore the funds from the scheme would be used for social and economic development. He criticised the Nationalist Party for seeking to harm Malta abroad.

Nationalist MEP Roberta Metsola noted in a statement that the cross party resolution called on Malta to put its citizenship scheme in line with EU values and underlined its concern with this way of granting citizenship in Malta. It emphasised  that any such national citizenship schemes undermined the very concept of European citizenship.

MEP David Casa (PN) said it was astounding that the resolution was co-signed by the Socialist group in the EP at the same time as the Labour Party in Malta had claimed that the Socialists here understood Malta’s position.

"Labour MEPs really have no idea what is going here”, he said.

The resolution calls for the European Commission to assess the various citizenship schemes in light of European values and notes that EU Citizenship implies a stakeholding with the Union.

PL - NATIONALIST MEPS INSIST ON CONDEMNATION FOR MALTA

The Labour Party in a statement issued before the final text was agreed, said that it was the PN which had continued to insist on references to Malta in the motion due to be debated tomorrow.

It was clear that the purpose of Opposition leader Simon Busuttil and the Nationalist MEPs was solely to attack their country as part of the partisan political game.

The socialists, on their part, had understood Malta's position and they had removed references to Malta in their original draft. The Greens and the UK Conservatives took a similar line, the PL said.

AD - SCHEME CAUSING UNDUE DAMAGE TO MALTA'S REPUTATION

AD leader Arnold Cassola said: "Prime Minister Muscat's citizenship sale proposal is causing undue damage to our country's reputation. The European Socialists are embarrassed by their Maltese colleague's scheme whilst the EPP and the European Liberals are openly condemning the Maltese government in their resolutions.

He said the European Greens have refrained from specifically condemning and mentioning Malta in their draft resolution because the Maltese people were not to be blamed for the incompetence of their leaders.

LABOUR PARTY STATEMENT - TEXT CHANGES ON INSISTENCE BY SOCIALISTS

The Labour Party said the original text of the motion had been changed on insistence by the socialist group.  It said the original text used stronger language against Malta. The Nationalist MEPs had continued to insist that the European Parliament should strongly condemn Malta.

Several MEPs from the socialist and other groups condemned the position of the PN MEPs for wanting the resolution to only single out Malta.

The agreed text can be seen in full on the pdf below.