Clegg did not mean to criticise Malta

British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has "the utmost admiration for Malta" and would never wish to affect the "historically good relations" between the two countries, his spokesman said yesterday.

In a speech on Wednesday, in which he promised a revolutionary change to the UK, Liberal-Democrat leader Mr Clegg said Britain used to be "the cradle of modern democracy but was now, on some measures, the most centralised country in Europe, bar Malta".

Asked to elaborate on his comment, a spokesman said Mr Clegg did not mean to suggest any criticism of the Maltese system. "Every country must decide upon its structures according to its individual circumstances." Mr Clegg's comparison came from a report entitled Structures In The Taxation Systems Of The EU, published by the European Commission. "He used these figures to illustrate that the UK must devolve more power to its communities," the spokesman added.

The Maltese Foreign Ministry said smaller countries were "necessarily" more centralised than larger ones.

When contacted, a ministry spokesman did not refer or object to Mr Clegg's words but said that larger countries could afford a federation system and grant power for regions to levy taxes.

"Certainly compared with 1987, the political system is much less centralised. The introduction of local government and the entrenchment of such a system in the Constitution have created different levels of government."

The ministry spokesman said the government was a "promoter of the principle of subsidiarity" through the launching of local government and the decentralisation of the education system.

On the other hand, a spokesman for the Parliamentary Secretariat for Local Government said Malta was both "centralised" and "very decentralised".

"One has to bear in mind that, in a large country, the administration of a town might be responsible for a population greater than that of all Malta. If you compare national governments you will find that, again because of Malta's small size, the government here is much closer to the people than it is in bigger countries.

Government authorities in Malta are far more accessible than they are in larger countries. By such measure, given Malta's size and out of necessity, it could be argued that this country is highly centralised."

At the same time, it could be argued that Malta was highly decentralised, with 68 local councils and, as from July 2010, 16 administrative committees responsible for hamlets, the spokesman said. "This means that, in Malta, we have a local council per 5,000 inhabitants, which is close to the European average."

However, given Malta's small size, the devolution of more central government functions to local councils - for example, the delivery of educational and health services - would involve a lot of duplication and unnecessary expense, so centralisation was needed.