1. NUTS and enlargement

2. Chapter 1
Bulgaria, Romania

3. Next enlargement Bulgaria and Romania 1 January 2007
The NUTS Regulation (1059/2003) will be directly applicable in BG and RO
Need to amend the annexes I, II and III

4. Current situation in BG, RO
Statistical regions agreed rather long time ago
Several regions not compliant with NUTS Regulation
Romania has no level 1 regions
Bulgaria has two too small level 2 regions

5. Procedure
Agree with BG, RO about their future NUTS regions (discussion is on-going)
Prepare an amendment to the NUTS Regulation
Amend annexes I, II, III of the NUTS Regulation through co-decision procedure
This amendment to be done separately from the NUTS 2006 revision

6. Modify regions in BG, RO BG – modify NUTS 1 and NUTS 2
RO – introduce NUTS 1
RO – change some labels of NUTS 2

7. Probable number of regions
Level
Bulgaria
Romania
NUTS 1
2 (non-adm.)
4 (non-adm.)
NUTS 2
6 (non-adm.)
8 (non-adm.)
NUTS 3
28 (adm.)
42 (adm.)

8. Chapter 2
Candidate countries

9. Statistical regions (CCs)
Turkey – agreed on 3 levels in 2002
Croatia – need agreement on level 2 regions
The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia – need agreement on level 3 regions
CARDS countries – Eurostat is open to first discussions on Statistical Regions, but there is no urgency
All proposals will be checked against rules in NUTS Regulation

10. Chapter 3
EFTA countries

11. Statistical regions (EFTA)
Iceland – new agreement on splitting the country into two statistical regions at level 3 from 1 Jan 2008
Liechtenstein – no change
Norway – no change
Switzerland – no change

12. Thanks for listening !
Any Questions ?