1. NUTS amendments

2. Structure of my talk The rules of the NUTS Regulation
The changes of NUTS in 2006
Detailed overview of changes
Enlargement with BG, RO
Regions in other European countries

3. Chapter 1
The rules

4. Basic rules for NUTS EU Regulation from 2003
3 hierarchical levels (NUTS levels 1 - 3)
Criteria: population thresholds
Administrative regions – average size within country
Non-administrative regions – size of individual region must comply

5. Population thresholds
Level
Minimum
Maximum
NUTS 1
3 million
7 million
NUTS 2
NUTS 3

6. Manage the changes of NUTS
NUTS regions are frozen in order to keep stable statistical time series
Possibility to review NUTS regions every 3 years
First general review took place in 2006
In case of change, statistical data are re-calculated by Member States

7. Chapter 2
The changes

8. Overview of the 2006 changes
12 EU-25 countries concerned by NUTS modifications
Territorial changes (112 new regions)
Name changes (10 regions)
Name corrections (12 regions)
Biggest change is in Denmark
NUTS 1 changed only in SE
NUTS 2 changed only in DK, DE, SI, UK
All other territorial changes are at NUTS level 3

9. The new NUTS in figures (EU-25)
Level
Closed codes
New codes
NUTS 1 1 3
NUTS 2
7 (+ 8)
10 (+ 8)
NUTS 3
80 (+ 36)
99 (+ 36)
(Brackets: number of changed codes due to territorial changes at next higher NUTS level)

10. Number of NUTS regions (EU-25)
Level
NUTS 2003
NUTS 2006
NUTS 1 89 91
NUTS 2
254
257
NUTS 3
1214
1233

11. Chapter 3
Detailed overview

24. Next steps Publication of legal text in Official Journal
OJ L39 of , page 1
Eurostat’s RAMON server will be updated
Eurostat PDF publication with maps (2007)
Implementation of new NUTS from 1 Jan 2008

25. Chapter 4
Bulgaria, Romania

26. Latest enlargement Bulgaria and Romania 1 January 2007
Amending annexes I, II, III of the NUTS Regulation through co-decision procedure during 2007
This amendment to be done separately from the NUTS 2006 revision
Statistical data can already be transmitted with new codes from BG, RO

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

28. BG, RO: 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.)

31. Chapter 5
Other countries

32. Statistical regions (CCs)
Turkey – agreed on 3 levels in 2002
Croatia – new agreement on level 2 regions 2007
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

34. 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

35. Thanks for listening !
Any Questions ?