The year 2005 has finished – but the problems that existed will not go away with it.

I think that for Malta, 2005 was not a good year. It was the first full year of membership in the European Union, but it does not seem that membership has changed the situation that much.

Ok, we get to have new roads and some sectors get subsidies, but as a country, I do not think that this is all that we bargained for. The fact that between 2007 and 2013 we will be getting just E805 million – and from this we have to deduct our contribution – does not augur well either.

Added to this, the social partners have been unable to reach agreement on a social pact which, I believe, is so important for the country’s future. I am sure that a stronger effort will put all those concerned on the same wavelength – the problem is whether all the social partners want such an accord to be reached.

Thirdly, I think that Malta is still politically immature. The Nationalists still think that the government is always right and the Labourites believed that all that the government does is wrong. This is not the way forward.

Politicians are right to defend their party and what it does. But the people should understand that this is not a black-and-white issue. They should learn to criticise their party more and praise the other side when it deserves it. It is by doing this that the political parties will learn to respect the citizens more.

Let us hope that during 2006, we will see a better Malta – in all aspects.

T. Muscat

Sliema