1. Meeting of the National Urban Audit Co-Ordinators, 10-11 May 2017
Item 3a: Update on Tercet

2. Is NUTS enough?
A 3-level statistical classification of territorial units, mirroring the administrative stucture of the Member States,
Guaranteeing harmonised standards and comparable data for analyses and policy making.

3. But we have new developments:

4. And not only cities have their specifities (and not yet a legal definition), but also...
- urban versus rural regions
- coastal versus non-coastal regions and areas
- metropolitan regions
- functional urban areas, catching the influence of commuting for the cities
- border, mountain, island, remote and sparsely populated regions

5. The Tercet proposal
- integrating territorial typologies into the NUTS Regulation to establish one common framework
- minimalistic approach: no separate legislation needed, only the most relevant typologies included
- establish legal recognition so that legislative acts and/or other actions can use them as reference (urban innovative actions, EU urban agenda)
- ensure their harmonised application across the EU and the OECD (and the UN? -> Project on global city definition)

6. Territorial levels
The typologies in Tercet will cover the most important typologies at the level of:
NUTS 3 (lowest regional level)
LAU (local level)

7. Territorial typologies at NUTS 3 level:
a) Urban/rural typology
Predominantly urban regions
Intermediate regions
Predominantly rural regions
b) Metropolitan typology
Metropolitan regions
Non-metropolitan regions
c) Maritime typology
Coastal regions
Non-coastal regions

8. Urban/rural typology: unemployment rates

9. Territorial typologies 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 (FUA)
Cities plus their...
Commuting zones
c) Coastal areas
Coastal areas
Non-coastal areas

10. Cities: Proportion of foreigners

11. Degree of urbanisation ('DEGURBA')

12. DEGURBA: People at risk of poverty or social exclusion

13. DEGURBA: self-perceived health, bad and very bad, 16 yrs or over

14. Statistical grid (1km2)
In order to be able to calculate the other typologies,
- Eurostat will maintain a statistical grid,
- based on 1km2 and
- on the definitions in INSPIRE.
Grid cells can be either urban centres, urban clusters or rural grid cells, depending on the density of the population.

16. Consultations / Discussions
WG in 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016
DIMESA in June 2015 (oral) and May (written)
Inter-service consultation Commission September 2016
ESSC in November 2016

17. Adoption Commission adoption in December 2016;
In the Council Working Parties in February, March and April;
Council draft compromise text in late-April; could be adopted by mid-May;
COREPER thereafter;
In the EP's REGI committee in April: will go for simplified procedure (without amendments);
Trilogue EP/Council/Commission in June?;
Adoption in second half of 2017;
Implementing Regulation on uniform conditions thereafter.

18. Results of readings in the CWPS
- More emphasis on statistical nature of the typologies; references to other Union acts deleted
- Stronger legal safeguards:
The Commission shall be empowered to adopt delegated acts in accordance with Article 7a to adapt amend Annex II. on the basis of corresponding developments in the Member States for the purpose of reflecting the changes in the administrative units that have been notifed to it by the Member State concerned.’;
- Clarification that typologies are only to be applied in the Union, not in the MSs

19. Tercet is not (yet)...:

20. Thank you for your attention!
More information/questions:
App My Region(s) in iTunes and Play Store