This report is required under Article 8 of Regulation (EC) No 1059/2003 on the establishment of a common classification of territorial units for statistics (NUTS). It requests that three years after the entry into force of this Regulation, the Commission shall submit a report on its implementation to the European Parliament and the Council.

The report covers all of the actions undertaken in implementation of the NUTS Regulation. The first implementation exercise was carried out in 2003 following adoption of the Regulation. The frequency for updating the NUTS classification is every three years, in accordance with the provisions of the Regulation. This important operation took place towards the end of 2006. This report was therefore timed to allow a full account of it. The NUTS classification is the reference framework for all regional statistics of the EU. It is therefore pertinent in this context to report on the supply of regional statistics from Member States to the Commission, more specifically to Eurostat.

It examines whether the NUTS Regulation should continue to cover three territorial levels or if more levels should be added. The Commission submitted a communication to the European Parliament and the Council on this matter as required. On 1st May 2004 ten countries joined the European Union. The NUTS Regulation has been amended to cover these new Member States and this process is also covered by this report. Finally, in discussions with candidate countries about their regional classification, the rules in the NUTS Regulation serve as a guideline.

The report concludes that the NUTS Regulation is operational within the European Statistical System and is serving its primary purpose as a framework for regional statistics at European level. Recital 8 of the NUTS Regulation underlines the intention to maintain stability in the NUTS classification. For certain domains of regional statistics, any change in the NUTS classification creates significant problems with maintenance and recalculation of statistical data. For this reason, the Commission has taken a restrictive approach in its proposals for changes to the NUTS regions.

The question of adding further regional levels to the NUTS Regulation has been investigated in depth, including the required consultations with the Member States. A communication on this subject was submitted to the European Parliament and the Council. The conclusion was that no further level should be added to the NUTS Regulation at this time. The issue should be reassessed some time after 2008.

In discussions with candidate countries, the provisions in the NUTS Regulation have been used to encourage the countries concerned to bring their proposals into line with a more harmonised European regional classification.

Revision of the NUTS Regulation proceeded smoothly, but minor changes will be made to consolidate this process in the 2009 revision round.

Overall the process for revision of the regional classification worked well, but certain procedural changes will need to be made for the next revision in 2009. Firstly, to ensure that the intention of every Member State is absolutely clear, a specific response will be requested from each Member State, clearly indicating if they do not intend to make any revisions. This will avoid any problems with the clarity of their intentions in the future. Secondly, and more importantly, in view of the revision of the "comitology procedure", particularly the extension of the time allowed for the European Parliament's "right of scrutiny", the revision process will have to be initiated much earlier in the year and the deadlines adjusted accordingly.

COM(2007)0287
EUR-Lex

IMPLEMENTING ACT: Commission Regulation (EC) No 105/2007 amending the annexes to Regulation (EC) No 1059/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the establishment of a common classification of territorial units for statistics (NUTS).

CONTENT: to recall, Regulation (EC) No 1059/2003 constitutes the legal framework for the regional classification for the collection, compilation and dissemination of harmonised regional statistics in the Community. The territorial units used for these statistics are listed in the Annex to this Regulation.

The Commission has been made aware that a number of the administrative territorial division have changed in several EU Member States. The purpose of this implementing act, therefore, is to re-publish the Annex to Regulation (EC) No 1059/2003 with the most recent data sent to the Commission by the Member States. The measure is in accordance with the opinion of the Statistical Programme Committee.

ENTRY INTO FORCE: 2 March 2007.

32007R0105
OJ L 039 10.02.2007, p. 0001

This report from the Commission considers whether a more detailed level or levels of NUTS classification, as required by Article 2(5) of the NUTS Regulation.

The current NUTS breakdown subdivides each Member State into a whole number of regions at NUTS 1 level. Each of these is then subdivided into regions at NUTS level 2, and these in turn into regions at NUTS level 3.

Until the beginning of the 1990s, the NUTS classification consisted of these three regional levels alone. In order to meet a growing general need for information at local level, the Commission has set up an infra-regional information system, the first step being to compile a Community classification of local administrative units (“LAU”) compatible with NUTS. Two further levels (baptised LAU) have been defined in accordance with the NUTS principles, but only the last and smallest (LAU level 2) has been fixed for all Member States. This usually corresponds to the concept of the “municipality” or “commune”.

During the discussions of the NUTS Regulation in Council, there were diverging views as to how many levels of NUTS should be covered by the legal text. Many countries wanted to stick to only three NUTS levels, while some countries (supported by the European Parliament in its opinion) wanted to include levels 4 and 5, i.e. the current LAU level 1 and 2. In order to reconcile the views, the Commission accepted a proposal that it would be given two years to study the appropriateness of covering further NUTS levels in the Regulation. The NUTS Regulation contains a provision in Article to this effect.

The Commission considers in this report what an additional NUTS level in the Regulation would mean, considering the various principles of the Regulation.

- NUTS level 4 would be a subdivision of NUTS level 3 regions,

- NUTS level 4 regions should cover the territory of each country completely,

- The regional breakdown would be kept stable for at least three years before the next possible amendments,

- Minimum and maximum population thresholds would apply,

- Supply of complete lists of names/identities for level 4 regions,

- Development of specific rules to cover modifications of NUTS level 4 in Article 5.

In other words, the introduction of an additional regional level in the NUTS Regulation would imply a considerable additional workload both for the Member States and for the Commission. The Commission has investigated in the past months, if the advantages of an additional regional level in NUTS outweigh the additional burden.

The Commission concludes that currently no additional level of regional breakdown should be envisaged in the framework of the NUTS Regulation. The efforts of the services should concentrate on the statistical information available at the existing NUTS levels in terms of consolidation in the enlarged EU, quality improvement and obtaining additional regional data where required for policy purposes.

Also, at an informal level, the harmonisation of LAU level 1 should be supported actively by the Commission at a European scale. This comprises an intensive exchange of views between statistical offices, encouraged and supported by the Commission, and the development of guidelines to a harmonisation of concepts with regard to the definition of LAU level 1 regions.

It is proposed that the situation should be reassessed at some point in the future. The most appropriate moment would appear to be in 2008, which follows the start of the next Cohesion Policy period.

COM(2005)0473
EUR-Lex

Regulation 2003/1059
OJ L 154 21.06.2003, p. 0001-0041

T5-0132/2003
OJ C 064 12.03.2004, p. 0021-0072 E

T5-0132/2003

A5-0071/2003

A5-0071/2003

PE314.757

SEC(2002)1365
EUR-Lex

14052/2/2002
OJ C 032 11.02.2003, p. 0026 E

13077/2002

14052/2/2002

CDR0182/2001
OJ C 107 03.05.2002, p. 0054

T5-0551/2001
OJ C 112 09.05.2002, p. 0146-0175 E

Debate in Parliament

T5-0551/2001

A5-0335/2001

A5-0335/2001

PE301.804/AM

PE301.804

CES0930/2001
OJ C 260 17.09.2001, p. 0057

EUR-Lex
OJ C 180 26.06.2001, p. 0108 E
COM(2001)0083

EUR-Lex
COM(2001)0083