PURPOSE: to amend Regulation (EC) No 1059/2003 on the establishment of a common classification of territorial units for statistics (NUTS) with a view to harmonising regional nomenclature.

LEGISLATIVE ACT: Regulation (EU) 2017/2391 of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Regulation (EC) No 1059/2003 as regards the territorial typologies (Tercet).

CONTENT: Regulation (EC) No 1059/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council establishes a common statistical classification of territorial units (nomenclature of territorial units for statistics, or NUTS) in order to enable the collection, compilation and dissemination of harmonised regional statistics in the European Union.

The main aim of the amendments made to existing legislation is to establish a common statistical classification of territorial units (NUTS), in order to enable the collection, compilation and dissemination of European statistics at different territorial levels of the Union. The codification of the typologies is necessary in order to set out unambiguous definitions of and conditions for territorial types, ensuring their harmonised and transparent application and making the typologies stable in order to support the compilation and dissemination of European statistics.

The Regulation establishes a legal recognition of territorial typologies, including the definition of cities , for the purpose of European statistics : this will make it possible for thematic statistical regulations and policy initiatives to refer to these territorial typologies for the purpose of collecting European statistics and/or to target specific territories such as cities, urban, rural or coastal areas and regions in policy.

The Regulation covers existing territorial typologies based on the NUTS level 3 (e.g. urban-rural typology, metropolitan regions), the local administrative units (e.g. degree of urbanisation, cities, coastal areas) and the 1 km² grid level required to calculate the other typologies, which are based on population distribution and density in the grid cells.

The Regulation also contains provisions conferring implementing powers on the Commission and the power to adopt delegated acts for a period of five years (renewable) from 18 January 2018, in order to adapt the typologies to corresponding developments in the Member States.

ENTRY INTO FORCE: 18.1.2018.

The European Parliament adopted by 639 votes to 37, with 6 abstentions, a legislative resolution on the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Regulation (EC) No 1059/2003 as regards the territorial typologies (Tercet).

The European Parliament’s position adopted at first reading under the ordinary legislative procedure amended the Commission proposal as follows:

Subsidiarity : Members pointed out that, in view of the objective of this Regulation, namely the harmonisation of regional classification, the Union may adopt measures, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity. They also stated the statistical typologies are without prejudice to the identification of specific areas for Union policies.

Implementing acts : the proposal provides for the Commission to lay down, by means of implementing acts, uniform conditions for the harmonised application of typologies at Union level.

Parliament clarified that these conditions shall describe the method according to which the typologies will be assigned to the individual LAU and NUTS level 3 regions. When applying the uniform conditions, the Commission shall take into account geographical, socioeconomic, historical, cultural and environmental circumstances.

Delegated acts : the power to adopt delegated acts shall be conferred on the Commission for a period of five years (tacitly renewable) from the date of entry into force of the Regulation. Delegated acts shall be developed in accordance with the information provided by the Member States.

The Committee on Regional Development adopted the report by Iskra MIHAYLOVA (ALDE, BG) on the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Regulation (EC) No 1059/2003 as regards the territorial typologies (Tercet).

The committee recommended that the European Parliament adopt its position at first reading in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure, taking over the Commission proposal.

The main objective of the amendments proposed by the Commission to the existing legislation is to introduce legal recognition of territorial typologies, including a definition of cities, for the purpose of European statistics.

The proposal would make it possible to aggregate data on the basis of typologies. For example, urban GDP could be compared with that of rural areas and employment could be measured according to the degree of urbanisation.

The proposal is of a technical nature and therefore does not affect the budget of the Union.

PURPOSE: to complement Regulation (EC) No 1059/2003 on the establishment of a common classification of territorial units for statistics (NUTS) with the necessary elements to take into account recent developments in territorial classifications for statistical purposes.

PROPOSED ACT: Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council.

ROLE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT: the European Parliament decides in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure and on an equal footing with the Council.

BACKGROUND: Regulation (EC) No 1059/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council establishes a common classification of territorial units for statistics (Nomenclature of territorial units for statistics NUTS) in order to enable the collection, compilation and dissemination of harmonised regional statistics in the EU.

These statistics are widely used in the context of EU regional policy and to determine eligibility for regions under the cohesion funds.

Over the past few years, Eurostat has expanded the range of statistics published on a number of territorial typologies to address EU policy-makers’ increasing need for such data. The Commission has defined these territorial typologies in cooperation with the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), and adopted methodologies to set up and maintain them.

The European Statistical System (ESS) already uses those typologies, in particular the degree of urbanisation, including the definition of cities in order, for instance, to define eligibility for European Regional Development Fund support to carry out innovative actions in cities or towns and suburbs.

However, the NUTS Regulation does not yet include or legally define these territorial typologies to determine urban, rural, coastal and/or other areas and regions in the EU , although they are already being used. The fact that these typologies and their methodologies have no legal recognition and are not formally recognised by the European Statistical System (ESS) is an issue that needs to be addressed to establish them as recognised, impartial and transparent statistical typologies.

CONTENT: it is proposed to amend or replace some provisions of Regulation (EC) No 1059/2003 in order to incorporate typologies into the NUTS Regulation which interlink with several statistical domains , like regional accounts, the labour market, rural development, agriculture, tourism, maritime policy and more.

It would make it possible to aggregate data according to clear-cut typologies: for instance making it possible to compare GDP in rural as opposed to urban areas, tourist nights spent in coastal as opposed to non-coastal areas and regions, employment/unemployment by degree of urbanisation and much more.

The main policy objectives of the initiative are the following.

establish a legal recognition of territorial typologies, including the definition of cities, for the purpose of European statistics : this will make it possible for thematic statistical regulations and policy initiatives to refer to these territorial typologies for the purpose of collecting European statistics and/or to target specific territories such as cities, urban, rural or coastal areas and regions in policy. The initiative will therefore cover the existing territorial typologies based on NUTS level 3 (e.g. urban-rural typology, metropolitan regions), the local administrative units (e.g. degree of urbanisation, cities, coastal areas) and the 1 km² grid level required to calculate the other typologies, which are based on population distribution and density in the grid cells; lay down the core definitions and statistical criteria for the different territorial typologies. For this purpose, the initiative will use the already existing methodologies for the different typologies; ensure harmonised and transparent application and use of the territorial typologies at EU level and in Member States; to align the NUTS Regulation to the new rules of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), powers currently conferred on the Commission by that regulation to adopt acts designed to amend non-essential elements of the regulation by supplementing it, in accordance with the regulatory procedure with scrutiny, should be provided for by powers to adopt delegated acts.

DELEGATED ACTS: the proposal contains provisions empowering the Commission to adopt delegated acts in accordance with Article 290 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.