BRUSSELS SPROUTS
HAVING flogged €1.4bn worth of “golden” EU passports in the past 10 years – not bad for an island of just 450,000 people – Malta, the EU’s version of an 18
th
century rotten borough, is in a spot of bother.
The European Court of Justice has ruled that the “golden passports” sale was illegal.
Moreover, the court did not set any time limit to the validity of its findings, or state that passports already awarded were still valid. Curiously, however, the ECJ ruling did not revoke the passports, formally tell Malta to scrap the scheme, or impose fines on its government for breaking EU law.