Working Group on regional, urban and rural development statistics Item 5.2 Legal base for territorial classifications ("Tercet")

Tercet – Inclusion of territorial typologies into the NUTS Regulation Why? How? When?

1. Why? Establish legal recognition of territorial typologies - already in use in Union legislation, but lack legislative establishment - enables specific policy instruments on for instance cities, rural regions, coastal areas and regions etc. to refer to typologies Lay down core definitions and statistical criteria for the typologies to ensure a harmonised application Clarify the role of local administrative units

2. How? By amending the NUTS Regulation: Changed art. 4: from "components of NUTS 3 territorial units in terms of smaller administrative units" to "local administrative units" Added art. 4a: population data on LAUs requested within 12 months of the end of the reference year (n-1) Added art. 4b: Statistical grids, to be maintained by Eurostat Added art. 4c: Territorial typologies

Territorial typologies Established in the Regulation itself: At NUTS 3 level: a) Urban/rural typology Urban regions Intermediate regions Rural regions b) Metropolitan typology c) Maritime typology

Territorial typologies Established in the Regulation itself: At LAU level: a) Degree of urbanisation (DEGURBA) Cities Towns and suburbs Rural areas b) Functional urban areas (FUA) c) Coastal areas

Territorial typologies Uniform conditions for the implementation of typologies in a separate implementing act

Uniform conditions at NUTS 3 level Element as established in the NUTS Regulation Conditions Labels   Urban-rural typology NUTS level 3 regions where at least 80% of the population live in urban clusters. Urban regions NUTS level 3 regions where at least 50% of the population live in urban clusters. Intermediate regions NUTS level 3 regions where at least 50% of the population live in rural grid cells. Rural regions Metropolitan typology NUTS level 3 region(s) representing agglomerations of at least 250 000 inhabitants based on the Functional Urban Areas. Metropolitan regions NUTS level 3 regions without a high share of their population in Functional Urban Areas. Non-metropolitan regions Maritime typology NUTS level 3 regions that have a coastline, or those in which the majority of the population lives within 50 km from the coastline, as well as the NUTS level 3 region of Hamburg (Germany). Maritime regions Non-maritime regions are those NUTS 3 regions that have no coastline and where the majority of their population does not live within 50 km from the coastline. Non-maritime regions

Uniform conditions LAU level Element as established in the NUTS Regulation Conditions Labels   Degree of urbanisation (DEGURBA) LAU level territorial units where at least 50% of the population live in urban centres. Cities LAU level territorial units where more than 50% of the population live in urban clusters, but are not 'cities'. Towns and suburbs LAU level territorial units where at least 50% of the population live in rural grid cells. Rural areas Functional Urban Areas (FUA) (Aggregations of) LAU level territorial units based on the Degree of urbanisation typology. (Greater) Cities Aggregations of LAU level territorial units based on the (greater) cities and their commuting zone. Functional Urban Areas Coastal areas LAU level territorial units that border the sea or that have 50% of their surface within a distance of 10km from the sea. LAU level territorial units that are not coastal, i.e. which do not border a sea and have less than 50% of their surface within a distance of 10km from the sea. Non-coastal areas

Uniform conditions grid Element as established in the NUTS Regulation Conditions Labels   Grid typology Contiguous 1 km ² grid cells (without diagonals and with gap filling) with a density of at least 1.500 inhabitants/km² and a minimum of 50 000 inhabitants. Urban centres Contiguous 1 km² grid cells (including diagonals) with a density of at least 300 inhabitants/km² and a minimum of 5 000 inhabitants. Urban clusters 1 km² grid cells outside urban clusters. Rural grid cells

3. When (indicative)? Action Timing (provisional) Presentation of the legislative draft to the DIMESA (written consultation) November - December 2015 Launch of Inter-Service Consultation January 2016 ESSC Committee May 2016 Adoption by the Commission June 2016 Transmission to EP and Council

Tercet – Core features - Eurostat will calculate and allocate the typologies to the regions/areas/grid cells, no impact on resources of Member States; - Eurostat will manage the grid; - Member States keep control over the typologies as defined in the Regulation & the implementing act; - alignment of reference dates for LAU lists to 31.12. (demography).

Exchange of views – remaining issues - Art. 5 (5) (HTS): implementing instead of delegated acts; - Art. 4a: inclusion of population data on LAUs (required to calculate the magnitude of changes of NUTS 3 boundaries); - Art. 3 (4) and 4(1) (delegated acts amending Annexes 2 (existing administrative units) and 3 (local administrative units)): need to clarify that these have to follow corresponding changes in Member States, and that a "group of experts" will be consulted each time; - keep the old labels of DEGURBA main or as alternative names ("densely populated", "intermediate" and "thinly populated" areas) - finetuning (correct names of LAU, delete double wording, correct references to annexes 2 and 3, …). Magnitude of changes in terms of population transfer (<1 % = not considered as amendment of NUTS, more than 1 % = amendment of NUTS)