2013’s Top 10 issues 2013 has been quite a year for news in Malta and boiling all of the year’s developments down to 10 distinct issues was no mean feat. These are The Malta Independent on Sunday’s Top 10 issues that shaped the year and which will, quite possibly, continue to shape 2014.   1 - Election 2013 changes the political landscape The 8 March General Election brought about a virtual paradigm shift in Maltese politics. After more than two decades in power, the Nationalist Party suffered a staggering defeat at the polls by a margin of over 36,000 votes. The election led to a cascade of developments with the instalment of the country’s largest ever Cabinet, the bowing out of the political scene of former two-term Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi, and to a sweeping replacement of the civil service. The Nationalist Party revealed that it was virtually bankrupt after the election and Simon Busuttil was elected as its new leader, with two deputy leaders for the first time in the party’s history – Mario de Marco and Beppe Fenech Adami.   2 - Irregular migration The issue of irregular migration has over the past decade never been far from the political agenda, but the country’s approach to the EU’s lack of burden sharing took an entirely different tack on 9 July, when Prime Minister Joseph Muscat effectively threatened to forcibly return recently rescued migrants to their transit country, Libya, after 390 irregular migrants made their way to Malta on 3 and 9 July. Two Air Malta planes had been booked to carry out the return, a plan that was thwarted after the European Court of Human Rights intervened with an interim cease and desist order. The irregular migration issue was propelled to the top of the EU’s agenda after 360 irregular migrants died off Lampedusa on 3 October, and another 270 perished on 11 October.   3 - Citizenship The government’s highly controversial Individual Investor Programme, which was to see Maltese citizenships being sold for €650,000 a pop, proved to be one of the year’s most contentious issues. The international media leapt upon the issue and Malta, in the process, attracted no small amount of negative publicity. The Opposition cried foul and after the legislation was presented as a fait accompli, and signed into effect by the President, the government and the Opposition entered into talks aimed at striking a compromise. Last Monday, talks broke up without an agreement, with the government and Opposition effectively agreeing to disagree on the issue. A legal notice implementing the programme is to be published in the near future, after which the Opposition will attempt to scuttle the programme in Parliament. A referendum on the issue could very well be held next year.   4 - The Arriva debacle Since British public transport operator Arriva assumed control of Malta’s public transport system back in July 2011, the system has been plagued with problems. From drivers not turning up to work on the first day, to disastrous route planning, to the cumbersome bendy buses, which eventually began to mysteriously catch fire – the handover of public transport was nothing short of a debacle, one that left many pining for the good old days of the Public Transport Association. Arriva is now to pull out of Malta, and its contract, at the beginning of the year and while precise details of the handover are still to be announced, Transport Malta will assume control of the public transport system until a new operator is found following a call for Expressions of Interest.   5 - Gangland warfare The double murder of Mario Camilleri Senior and Junior was undoubtedly one of the most shocking murders of the year, but it was one of many in a rash of gangland warfare slayings.  In an interview in July, in actual fact the day before the corpses of the father and son were discovered, Police Commissioner Peter Paul Zammit told The Malta Independent on Sunday in an interview: “Unfortunately I have to say that yes, we have gangs in Malta and a certain amount of criminal organisations. We are not speaking of a mafia set up, but rather a loose number of criminal working together, who know each other and who sometimes work together on one case and sometimes in another.” The gangland murder in Marsa back in May remains unsolved and the grim trial of George Galea and Jason Galea for the double slaying is ongoing.   6 - Pope Francis The appointment of Pope Francis on 13 March, coincidentally at the same time that Malta’s new Cabinet was being sworn in, led to a revival in the Church. From his plea over what he termed the “globalisation of indifference” as he prayed for asylum seekers who lost their lives to the Mediterranean, to reaching out to homosexuals and to forming a commission that will help sexual abuse victims with their healing process, the new Argentinean Pope has already and most certainly left his mark as a reformer.   7 - Lockerbie anniversary It may not be a strictly Maltese commemoration, but the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland on 21 December 1988 that killed 270 people will always be inextricably tied to Malta. That is because the man found guilty of the heinous act, Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, was found guilty of having loaded the bomb onto a feeder flight at Malta International Airport. Last week’s 25th anniversary of the tragedy, which many believe is still to be solved, was a poignant one, and new calls for fresh inquiries were made. Al-Megrahi, who died insisting in his innocence, had been granted an appeal by the Scottish authorities before being released from a Scottish prison on compassionate grounds.  Al-Megrahi has since died but there are many that hope the real truth behind the atrocity has not died with him – and that Malta’s name will eventually be cleared.   8 - Civil Unions law The government’s proposed civil union legislation, an electoral pledge made good and which provides for same-sex marriage in all but name, is still being debated in Parliament, but once it is brought into force, it will represent the country’s greatest civil rights shift since the introduction of divorce.  The only sticking point appears to be the clause that will allow homosexual couples to adopt children, which the Opposition appears to oppose although it has not yet declared itself definitively on the bone of contention. The parliamentary debate is set to begin again after Parliament’s Christmas recess.   9 - Oil procurement The shady dealings and kickbacks for Enemalta officials from the state’s oil purchases were exposed by the media in the lead-up to the March general election, an issue that helped to secure the Labour Party’s rise to power. It transpires that as the country’s consumers were being hit with ever-higher electricity bills, a handful of Enemalta employees were awarding oil purchase contracts not based on the purchase price but rather, based on the kickbacks they were to receive. Oil trader George Farrugia, the kickbacks’ architect, had been granted a Presidential Pardon in return for turning state’s evidence, but much of his testimony before the Public Accounts Committee is now being called into question.   10 - Power station contract The government’s electoral pledge to slash electricity rates by a whopping 25 per cent and to construct a new natural gas-fired power station in Delimara appear to be well on track with the recent award notice of the country’s Power Purchase Agreement and Gas Supply Agreement. The contract has gone to the ElectroGas consortium, which includes the participation of the Maltese Tumas and Gasan groups, German company Siemens and SOCAR, the state energy company of Azerbaijan. ElectroGas Malta is to provide electricity to Enemalta for 18 years and will procure natural gas at a fixed price for the next five years. The consortium will build a new gas power station and supply electricity to Enemalta. The development will lead to the promised 25 per cent rate reduction for domestic consumers come March 2014 and the same for businesses as from March 2015.