Regulation (EC) No 1059/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 May 2003 on the establishment of a common classification of territorial units for statistics (NUTS)

Article 1

Subject matter

Article 2

Structure

Article 3

Classification criteria

To this end, ‘administrative unit’ shall mean a geographical area with an administrative authority that has the power to take administrative or policy decisions for that area within the legal and institutional framework of the Member State.

In order to establish the relevant NUTS level in which a given class of administrative units in a Member State is to be classified, the average size of this class of administrative units in the Member State shall lie within the following population thresholds:

If the population of a whole Member State is below the minimum threshold for a given NUTS level, the whole Member State shall be one NUTS territorial unit for this level.

The resulting aggregated units shall hereinafter be referred to as ‘non-administrative units’. The size of the non-administrative units in a Member State for a given NUTS level shall lie within the population thresholds referred to in paragraph 2.

Some non-administrative units may, however, deviate from those thresholds because of particular geographical, socioeconomic, historical, cultural or environmental circumstances, especially in the islands and the outermost regions.

Article 4

Local administrative units

Article 4a

Statistical grids

The Commission (Eurostat) shall maintain and publish a system of statistical grids at Union level in the dedicated section of its website. The statistical grids shall conform to the specifications laid down in Commission Regulation (EU) No 1089/2010 (¹).

Article 4b

Union territorial typologies

The grid-based typology shall be established at the 1 km² grid resolution level as follows:

— ‘urban centres’,

— ‘urban clusters’,

— ‘rural grid cells’.

The following typologies shall be established at LAU level:

(a) degree of urbanisation (DEGURBA): — ‘Urban areas’: — ‘Cities’ or ‘Densely populated areas’, — ‘Towns and suburbs’ or ‘Intermediate density areas’, — ‘Rural areas’ or ‘Thinly populated areas’;

(b) functional urban areas: — ‘Cities’ plus their ‘Commuting zones’;

(c) coastal areas: — ‘Coastal areas’, — ‘Non-coastal areas’.

If there is more than one administrative level of LAU in a Member State, the Commission (Eurostat) shall consult that Member State to determine the administrative level of LAU that shall be used for the attribution of typologies.

The following typologies and labels shall be established at NUTS level 3:

(a) urban-rural typology: — ‘Predominantly urban regions’, — ‘Intermediate regions’, — ‘Predominantly rural regions’;

(b) metropolitan typology: — ‘Metropolitan regions’, — ‘Non-metropolitan regions’;

(c) coastal typology: — ‘Coastal regions’, — ‘Non-coastal regions’.

Article 5

Amendments to NUTS

The Member States shall inform the Commission of:

(a) all changes that have occurred in administrative units, in so far as they may affect the NUTS classification, as laid down in Annex I, or the contents of Annexes II and III;

(b) all other changes at the national level that may affect the NUTS classification, in accordance with the classification criteria laid down in Article 3.

Changes to NUTS level 3 boundaries due to changes of smaller administrative units as laid down in Annex III:

(a) shall not be considered as amendments of NUTS if they involve a population transfer equal to or less than one percent of the NUTS 3 territorial units concerned;

(b) shall be considered as amendments of NUTS, in accordance with paragraph 3 of this Article, if they involve a population transfer of more than one percent of the NUTS 3 territorial units concerned.

The Commission shall be empowered to adopt delegated acts in accordance with Article 7a to amend the NUTS classification referred to in the first subparagraph of this paragraph on the basis of the changes in the territorial units that have been communicated to it by the Member State concerned in accordance with paragraph 1 of this Article. Regional data which the Member States send to the Commission (Eurostat) shall be based on the amended NUTS classification starting from 1 January of the second year after the adoption of that delegated act.

The Commission shall, by means of implementing acts, set out uniform conditions for time series and their length, taking into account the feasibility of providing them. Those implementing acts shall be adopted in accordance with the examination procedure referred to in Article 7.

Article 6

Management

The Commission shall take the necessary measures to ensure the consistent management of the NUTS classification. In particular, such measures may include:

(a) drafting and updating of explanatory notes on NUTS;

(b) examination of problems arising from the implementation of NUTS in the Member States' classifications of territorial units.

Article 7

Committee procedure

Article 7a

Exercise of the delegation

Article 9

Entry into force

This Regulation shall enter into force on the 20th day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.

This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States.

ANNEX I

BELGIUM

BULGARIA

CZECHIA

DENMARK

GERMANY