‘Austria and Cyprus have no residency requirements’ – Henley & Partners

On Monday's Reporter on TVM, Chrisitan Kalin, an internationally well-known immigration and citizenship law specialist and a partner at the Henley & Partners Zurich's office said that the most important feature of the contract between the government and Henley & Partners has already been made public.

"Our remuneration has been made public. The other points are quite irrelevant for public discussion. It contains some important features that need to remain confidential because they are related to national security questions. These obviously shouldn't be published."

Following Prime Minister Joseph Muscat announcing further changes to the contentious Individual Investor Programme, Monday's Reporter on TVM took a deeper look at this scheme and whether the issue is a closed chapter.

Alongside Parliamentary Secretary for EU Presidency 2017 and EU Funds, Ian Borg and the opposition spokesperson for home affairs Jason Azzopardi, MediaToday Managing Editor Saviour Balzan analysed the government's concession in front of the European Commission and subsequent introduction of a residency period.

In his exclusive comments, Kalin said that the situation in Austria is very clear. "There is a paragraph in the Citizenship Act that provides that you can obtain citizenship directly without prior residence. Such provision has been introduced in 1986 and since then Austria has a quite established practice."

Kalin argued that not only sports and famous singers have been granted citizenship but also potential investors. "Effectively this provision has been used to attract investors and business people. The same as Malta is doing now. The only difference is much smaller numbers and complete secrecy about the process and the names involved."

He said that in Austria, there were about 20 to 30 cases a year. "But as I said, these numbers are not published at all."

Kalin also stated that Cyprus allows citizenship to be granted directly wihtout any residency required.

Balzan pointed out that the criticism levelled at Henley & Partners is that they are interested in making money.

"It is very clear that we obviously have an interest and this is our business. We are specialists in this field and we advice government's and countries around the world. But I do take offence in the way some of those criticisms are being aforesaid. Especially from those who are in opposition and the judicial protest, because this doesn't make any sense. One thing is to have a mature political debate about that. We are specialists that provide solutions in this field and we pride ourselves to do this very well," Kalin reiterated.

With the previous administration, we have helped with regards to the residence programme. "However, this programme had severe problems, because it was not very well managed over a long period of time. In the end, it ran into a point that it had to be closed. Hence, we closed it down and tried to restructure it. This is all related to the residence programme," Kalin replied.

Reporter on TVM also discussed whether there are more amendments in store and whether the 12-month residency period is the only change affected by the government's and the European Commission's agreement.

On Monday, Azzopardi said that the Opposition will ‘watch and see' until the Government publishes the new legal notice regulating citizenship programme as sanctioned by the European Commission.

Borg said that the main concern of the Nationalist Party is that this scheme will be successful and will attract a lot of foreign investment in Malta. He reiterated that the Nationalist MEPs undermined Malta's reputation.

On the other hand, Azzopardi said: "Roberta Metosla and David Casa criticised the Government's scheme that damaged Malta's reputation. What about the 182 Socialist MEPs that not only criticised and condemned this scheme, but voted against it? These MEPs were also forced by the Nationalist Party to do so?"

AD chairman Arnold Cassola said that the IIP scheme as it was in its unveiling, the secrecy clause would tarnish the country's reputation. Moreover, Maltese citizens had a right to know who was being granted citizenship.

Cassola argued that the Opposition wasn't right "when threatening to revoke IIP citizenships. This was an outright breach of the fundamental human rights."

On the other hand, he added that Finance Minister Edward Scicluna's comments that "Malta was short of certain people of calibre" were reprehensible and shameful.

"Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, together with former Prime Minister Alfred Sant who 11 years ago attempted to revoke my voting rights, has come to terms with what AD has been saying. This implies that residence does not only infer the individual's physical presence in Malta, but even habitual presence. Therefore, this means that those Maltese living in the United Kingdom, Luxembourg and Brussels will have full voting rights."

Reporter is aired live every Monday at 6:55pm on TVM. The programme is repeated on TVM2 on Monday at 10:15pm.