Regulation (EC) No 1059/2003 of the European Parliament and of the CouncilShow full title

Article 1 U.K. Subject matter

1. The purpose of this Regulation is to establish a common statistical classification of territorial units, hereinafter referred to as ‘NUTS’, in order to enable the collection, compilation and dissemination of harmonised regional statistics in the Community.

2. The NUTS classification laid down in Annex I shall replace the ‘Nomenclature of territorial units for statistics (NUTS)’ established by the Statistical Office of the European Communities in cooperation with the national statistical institutes of the Member States.

Article 2 U.K. Structure

1. The NUTS classification subdivides the economic territory of the Member States, as defined in Decision 91/450/EEC, into territorial units. It ascribes to each territorial unit a specific code and name.

2. The NUTS classification is hierarchical. It subdivides each Member State into NUTS level 1 territorial units, each of which is subdivided into NUTS level 2 territorial units, these in turn each being subdivided into NUTS level 3 territorial units.

3. However, a particular territorial unit may be classified at several NUTS levels.

4. At the same NUTS level, two different territorial units in the same Member State may not be identified by the same name. If two territorial units in different Member States have the same name, the country identifier is added to the territorial units' names.

5. In each Member State, there can be further hierarchical levels of detail, decided by the Member State, whereby NUTS level 3 is subdivided. Within two years from the entry into force of this Regulation, the Commission, after consulting the Member States, shall submit a communication to the European Parliament and the Council on the appropriateness of establishing rules on a Europe-wide basis for more detailed levels in the NUTS classification.

Article 3 U.K. Classification criteria

1. Existing administrative units within the Member States shall constitute the first criterion used for the definition of territorial units.

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.

2. 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:

Level	Minimum	Maximum
NUTS 1	3 million	7 million
NUTS 2	800 000	3 million
NUTS 3	150 000	800 000

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.

3. For the purpose of this Regulation, the population of a territorial unit shall consist of those persons who have their usual place of residence in this area.

4. The existing administrative units that are used for the NUTS classification are laid down in Annex II. Amendments to Annex II shall be adopted in accordance with the regulatory procedure referred to in Article 7(2).

5. If for a given level of NUTS no administrative units of a suitable scale exist in a Member State, in accordance with the criteria referred to in paragraph 2, this NUTS level shall be constituted by aggregating an appropriate number of existing smaller contiguous administrative units. This aggregation shall take into consideration such relevant criteria as geographical, socio-economic, historical, cultural or environmental circumstances.

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.

In accordance with the regulatory procedure referred to in Article 7(2), individual non-administrative units may however deviate from these thresholds because of particular geographical, socio-economic, historical, cultural or environmental circumstances, especially in the islands and the outermost regions.

Article 4 U.K. Components of NUTS

1. Within six months after the entry into force of this Regulation, the Commission shall publish the components of each NUTS level 3 territorial unit in terms of the smaller administrative units as laid down in Annex III, as transmitted to it by the Member States.

Amendments to Annex III shall be adopted in accordance with the regulatory procedure referred to in Article 7(2).

2. Within the first six months of each year, Member States shall transmit to the Commission all changes of the components for the previous year that may affect the NUTS level 3 boundaries and in so doing shall respect the electronic data format requested by the Commission.

Article 5 U.K. Amendments to NUTS

1. 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.

2. 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.

3. Amendments to the NUTS for the non-administrative units in a Member State, as referred to in Article 3(5), may be made if, at the NUTS level in question, the amendment reduces the standard deviation of the size in terms of population of all EU territorial units.

4. Amendments to the NUTS classification shall be adopted in the second half of the calendar year in accordance with the regulatory procedure referred to in Article 7(2), not more frequently than every three years, on the basis of the criteria laid down in Article 3. Nevertheless, in the case of a substantial reorganisation of the relevant administrative structure of a Member State, the amendments to the NUTS classification may be adopted at intervals of less than three years.

The Commission implementing measures referred to in the first subparagraph shall enter into force, with regard to the transmission of the data to the Commission, on 1 January of the second year after their adoption.

5. When an amendment is made to the NUTS classification, the Member State concerned shall transmit to the Commission the time series for the new regional breakdown, to replace data already transmitted. The list of the time series and their length will be specified in accordance with the regulatory procedure referred to in Article 7(2) taking into account the feasibility of providing them. These time series are to be supplied within two years of the amendment to the NUTS classification.

Article 6 U.K. 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 U.K. Procedure

1. The Commission shall be assisted by the Statistical Programme Committee, established by Article 1 of Decision 89/382/EEC, Euratom (hereinafter referred to as the Committee).

2. Where reference is made to this paragraph, Articles 5 and 7 of Decision 1999/468/EC shall apply, having regard to the provisions of Article 8 thereof.

The period laid down in Article 5(6) of Decision 1999/468/EC shall be set at three months.

3. The Committee shall adopt its rules of procedure.

Article 8 U.K. Reporting

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.

Article 9 U.K. 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.