Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1513813
7 Looking forward 2024 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 31 DECEMBER 2023 the new year Happy New Year IN 2024, Malta will be sending a new European Commissioner to Brussels as Helena Dalli's term will expire in June. The President of the Commission is expected to be chosen after the European Parliament elections, slated for 8 June. Subsequently, each country will be expected to nominate a commissioner, who is then assigned a portfolio for which they will be accounta- ble during the five-year term. Despite each member state appointing a member to the Brussels executive, commissioners operate independently of national governments. This means that in 2024, Robert Abela will have to nominate someone, who will then be grilled by MEPs before being confirmed. In Maltese tradition, Abela is most likely to choose a candidate from his own Cabinet and fingers have long been pointed towards Deputy Prime Minister Chris Fearne. Since 2020, after Fearne lost the leadership race to Abela, many inside the party have speculated that the deputy PM would be Abela's choice. Fearne, who has also doubled up as health minister, shone during the COVID-19 pandemic having led Malta's efforts to contain the spread of the virus without re- sorting to a full lockdown. Fearne's work during the pandemic earned him brownie points among peers in the World Health Organisation and last May he was appointed pres- ident of the WHO Assembly. That post carries a one-year term and culminates in the annual assem- bly where WHO delegates discuss the priorities and policies the organisation will be working on for the following 12 months. To put it simply, Fearne is most likely to be Abe- la's nomination for Malta's next EU Commissioner. This however brings about the eventuality of a min- isterial reshuffle, which would mark the first shake up in Robert Abela's cabinet since the 2022 election. Firstly, Abela would need to find a replacement to head the gargantuan Health Ministry. There are two likely candidates up for the job - Active Ageing Min- ister Jo Etienne Abela, a surgeon by profession, and backbencher Malcolm Paul Agius Galea, a general practitioner. They are both fresh faces, having been elected for the first time in 2022, although Agius Galea is disadvantaged because he has no Cabinet experience. The Prime Minister may even opt to merge the health and elderly ministries, keeping Jo Etienne Abela as minister and appointing Agius Galea par- liamentary secretary within the fused ministry. Other than that, all other Cabinet members will likely to be on their toes when the time for a reshuffle comes in the middle of 2024. Indeed, the outcome of the European Parliament and local council elections may define how deep and wide a reshuffle could be. The Prime Minister may opt for a surgical re- placement of Fearne without destabilising the ship of State, or go for a radical overhaul in his Cabinet that seeks to respond to public discontent with his government. Whichever choice he makes, Abela knows this is the best time to repurpose his Cabinet in time for the second part of the legislature. A new European Commissioner and a Cabinet shake up MATTHEW FARRUGIA mfarrugia@mediatoday.com.mt Deputy Prime Minister Chris Fearne of the largest strains on public finances, drastically reducing government's flexibility should another crisis arise. But there will also be the European Com- mission breathing down Malta's neck in 2024 and beyond as EU spending rules become enforce- able once again. This will be a headache, although more flex- ibility in the rules agreed to in December make it a less throb- bing issue unless government goes on a wild spending spree. 5. The unknown Although political and finan- cial woes are expected in any year for a prime minister, Rob- ert Abela's 2024 might also be marked by the events outside of anyone's predictions. This year, no one could have guessed that the tragic death of Jean Paul Sofia would lead Abela and his party to one of their lowest points, ignoring the calls of a grieving family for a public inquiry, only to imme- diately change their mind. Likewise, no one could have predicted that an American couple's short-lived holiday in Malta would lead to the biggest step towards abortion rights the country had ever seen, only to disappear into the void fol- lowing amendemnts that made Abela look spineless in the eyes of liberals. Whatever the source of Ab- ela's headaches in 2024, many will be looking to his reactions, which have oscillated from putting pressure on MPs to re- sign in the face of scandal such as the Rosianne Cutajar affair, to putting up a solid defence of questionable customer care practices as was the case in- volving the driving test scandal that happened on Ian Borg's watch.