Governance should be going NUTS

Abstract

To NUTS or not to NUTS. Act No. XVI of 2009, amending the Local Councils Act Chapter 363 (11th Schedule) has been passed with its due fanfare albeit with less regard to the governance issue. One might query which NUTS are being analysed here and what the relationship is with reference to the Local Councils! There are nuts and NUTs; the former are soft or hard shelled whilst the latter speak of spatial administrative units based on the Eurostat EU-wide governance areas. Officially known as Nomenclature des Unites Territoriales et Statistiques (NUTS) (Nomenclature of Territorial Statistical Units) provides for a single, uniform breakdown of the territory of the EU thus allowing comparative analysis across the different administrative units across the EU and neighbouring countries. EC Regulation No 1059/2003 was adopted in May 2003 and entered into force in July 2003. Malta, through its Office of Statistics took up the challenge and as can be seen through its annual publications over the last decades, inclusive of Census, has compiled information based on the nomenclature.