The PN has “no problem stopping” Malta’s golden passport schemes but will continue to operate it with improved due diligence until the economy can be maintained without funds from the programme, Bernard Grech said on Friday. 

Times of Malta sought to clarify the party’s position after the PN voted in favour of banning golden passports schemes at EU level despite saying it would continue to operate the schemes. 

“We are ready to keep using this [the scheme] with proper due diligence but we will create other sectors and not rely solely on it and so we have no problem stopping it,” Grech told Times of Malta. 

PN's transport proposals

Earlier, Grech spoke about the party’s vision for the future of transport in Malta, saying that the government's transport plan in recent years consisted only of the widening of roads and uprooting of trees.

"Travel in Malta has become too difficult. Remote working is possible and so we will be providing incentives for employers and employees.  

"The solution for the congestion isn’t a metro but making it easier to shift to public transport," he said. 

The PN is instead proposing the introduction of trackless trams, which, if elected, the party could have up and running within the next five years. This, Grech said, contrasts with the building of the metro being proposed by Labour and which will take some 20 years to complete. 

Grech also admitted some roads might have to be widened to make room for the tram, but added that the existing infrastructure has already been widened and it would make no sense to not make use of what has already been built. There would be no tram in Gozo, but the party, he said, would keep monitoring the situation there. 

Photo: PN

Asked where the tram would fit on Malta’s roads, Grech said there would be dedicated trams and assured there would not be the chaos that previous efforts to introduced such lanes had caused in the past. 

Other measures being proposed by the PN include offering families €10,000 over five years to get rid of their old vehicle and commit to not getting another one in that period, an increase in the number of rapid charging points for electric vehicles and a 20%reduction in the cost of electricity for the charging of such vehicles.