Malta’s citizenship programme was in line with European treaties, did not breach international laws and fulfilled requirements, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said this morning.

Speaking on Radio Malta’s programme Ghandi X’Nghid, Dr Muscat said the government’s mistake was that it had not communicated enough but it had learnt from its mistake and after the situation was explained to the social partners, they agreed with the government’s proposal.

The Prime Minister insisted that the scheme was not selling citizenship but was a scheme bound to investment.

Because for a person to qualify for citizenship, he had to invest €150,000 in bonds to the government at favourable rates for at least 5 years, spend €350,000 to buy property or €16,000 on the rental of such, which property had to be retained for five years, pay €650,000 in cash and go through a four-tier due diligence process.

The scheme would put €1,000 million at the people’s disposal to be invested in the future and to enable the government not to leave debts for future generations to carry.

Dr Muscat said that the more the government explained what the programme was all about, more people were agreeing to it. He was seeing this with his own eyes. The scheme, he said, did not put Malta on the spot, it was the PN who had put Malta in the spotlight.

The Maltese, whatever their political beliefs, did not like it when politicians dirtied Malta’s name outside the country and the Opposition leader was feeling the negative reaction towards him.

Dr Muscat insisted that other countries, including Austria, Cyprus, Portugal, Spain and Croatia had similar programmes.