Commission Regulation (EU) 2016/2066 of 21 November 2016 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)

THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION,

Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,

Having regard to 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) (1), and in particular Articles 3(4), 4(1) and 5(4) thereof,

Whereas:

(1) Regulation (EC) No 1059/2003 establishes a common classification of territorial units to enable the collection, compilation and dissemination of harmonised regional statistics in the Union.

(2) The annexes to Regulation (EC) No 1059/2003 list the territorial units to be used for statistics.

(3) In accordance with the provisions in Article 5(4) of Regulation (EC) No 1059/2003, amendments to the NUTS classification shall be adopted in the second half of the calendar year, and usually not more frequently than every 3 years.

(4) The NUTS classification was last amended by Commission Regulations (EU) No 1319/2013 (2) (regular amendment) and (EU) No 868/2014 (3) (extraordinary amendment due to a substantial reorganisation of the administrative territorial division of Portugal).

(5) According to the information provided to the Commission, the administrative territorial division has changed in several Member States.

(6) Regulation (EC) No 1059/2003 should therefore be amended accordingly.

(7) The measures provided for in this Regulation are in accordance with the opinion of the European Statistical System Committee,

HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:

Article 1

The annexes to Regulation (EC) No 1059/2003 are replaced by the text in the Annex to this Regulation.

Article 2

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

It shall apply, regarding the transmission of data to the Commission (Eurostat), from 1 January 2018.

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

Done at Brussels, 21 November 2016.

For the Commission The President Jean-Claude JUNCKER

(1) OJ L 154, 21.6.2003, p. 1.

(2) Commission Regulation (EU) No 1319/2013 of 9 December 2013 amending 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) (OJ L 342, 18.12.2013, p. 1).

(3) Commission Regulation (EU) No 868/2014 of 8 August 2014 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) (OJ L 241, 13.8.2014, p. 1).