“Brussels cannot decide what Malta does with its citizenship” said Alex Muscat, parliamentary secretary for citizenship whilst addressing the house on Wednesday.
“We decide who invests in our county. It is our right to decide who is Maltese or not,”
This comes after the European Commission initiated legal proceedings against Malta for issuing hundreds of passports to non-EU nationals in exchange for huge sums of cash over the last two years.
Defending the lucrative scheme Muscat said in six years, over €1.5 billion were generated through passport sales.
He also added that more than 25% of applicants were not accepted, insisting that thorough due diligence is carried out on potential citizens.
Notwithstanding the strong rhetoric coming from the proponents of the scheme the EU has officially launched infringement proceedings against Malta and Cyprus over the scheme.