government would do well to phase out the gold passport scheme
A new government is “doing well” to phase out the passport scheme, according to MEP Alfred Sant.
In Times of Malta In his opinion, the former Labor Prime Minister said that the passport program was “too much of a disgrace”, although not necessarily for the right reason.
Earlier this month, Sant was among four Labor MEPs who voted against a European Parliament motion calling for a ban on such citizenship schemes.
They were the only members of the socialist parliamentary group to do so.
Sant discarded any link between the FATF greylisting and the passport scheme.
“The opposition of the PN and others have tried to put the reason for this on the investment passport program,” he says.
“But greylisting has been activated not because of the passport program but because there is little confidence in how Malta has long run financial services and gaming – both launched under Nationalist administrations.
“If they eventually fall under EU regulation, they could end up like agriculture and manufacturing,” argues Sant.
He says that the downturn in these sectors will not be easy to combat and new areas of economic initiative need to be identified.
In the same sentence, Sant takes a look at, and takes a look at the PN’s electoral proposals to seek new areas of economic development.
“The 10 ‘new’ economic sectors that ‘identified’ the PN’s election campaign do not count for many, although why not push them as well,” he asks.
Tips for cleaning up the government
Sant also says that the fight against corruption must be accelerated, with pending cases removed as soon as possible, both politically and criminally, while establishing new safeguards.
It is clear that the so-called “anti-corruption” commission is worthless when it comes to fighting corruption.
He added that the division of responsibilities for ministries, projects and contracts, so that “everyone has a finger in the pie but no one is fully responsible for any particular decision”, must stop.
“The lines of command and responsibility from the prime minister to the humblest clerk should be clearly and transparently distributed.
“Again, this goes against embedded cultures of nepotism, networks of old children, political patronage and much more.”
He says that this “reform agenda” will take courage and perseverance, along with a lot of political capital, that the current administration has.
Unless such an agenda is designed and implemented, it will increase the likelihood that Malta will not be able to successfully navigate European waters, Sant continues.
“Certainly, the government must be willing to sacrifice votes as soon as it pursues such goals, the impact of which they do not like very much. So far, all the administrations have backed down from this, “he said.
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