Common Position adopted by the Council with a view to the adoption of a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on the establishment of a common classification of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS) - Montesquieu Instituut

COUNCIL OF Brussels, 11 November 2002

THE EUROPEAN UNION

14052/02

Interinstitutional File: ADD 1

2001/0046 (COD) -

ECO 336

UD 111

CODEC 1406

DRAFT STATEMENT OF THE COUNCIL'S REASONS

Subject : Common Position adopted by the Council with a view to the adoption of a

Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on the establishment of

a common classification of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS)

DRAFT STATEMENT OF THE COUNCIL'S REASONS

I.

Introduction

On 14 February 2001 the Commission adopted the proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on the establishment of a common classification of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS). The proposed Regulation is based on Art. 285 of the EC Treaty and is in accordance with the Art. 251 procedure (codecision with the European Parliament).

The European Parliament completed its first reading and delivered an Opinion

1 on 24 October

2001. The Economic and Social Committee delivered an Opinion

2 on 11 July 2001.

The Committee of the Regions delivered an Opinion3 on 15 November 2001.

On 14 November 2002 the Council adopted its Common Position as set out in doc. 14052/02 ECO 336 UD 111 CODEC 1406.

II. Objective

This proposal provides a legal framework for the geographical division of the territory on which statistical data are gathered, as opposed to the current method of settling this matter via negotiations between the Member States and EUROSTAT, the Statistical Office of the European Communities.

1.

General

In the Common Position the Council:

• - 

  incorporated all the amendments of the European Parliament;
• - 

  modified the wording to clarify the meaning of the legal text;
• - 

  added a recital on the territorial scope of application of the Regulation (Recital 12);
• - 

  modified Article 7 as regards the Committee procedure in accordance with the standard

legal text used in these cases;

• - 

  sought to provide guidelines (Art. 5 paragraph 2) and timetables related to the way of

dealing with either administrative re-organisation in a territorial unit of a Member State or with population transfers between territorial units;

2.

European Parliament amendments

The Council accepted all Parliament's amendments on substance, although the exact wording was not followed in each case.

2.1. The following EP amendments have been accepted and integrated into the Council

text (doc. 14052/02 ECO 336 UD 111 CODEC 1406):

Amendment 1 - recital 5

This amendments introduces the possibility to expand the current NUTS classification by including a NUTS Level 4. Additionally, the current wording of this recital now explicitely states that the Member States are free to add further levels of NUTS details.

Amendment 2 - recital 9 (now recital 10)

This amendment added further considerations to recital 9.

Amendment 3 - recital 9a (now recital 11)

This amendment indicates that reference must be made to the definition of population.

Amendment 4 Art. 2

Art. 2 has been changed in accordance with this amendment, which suppresses the notion of region and clarifies the text.

Amendment 5 Art. 3, new paragraph 2a (now Art. 3, par. 3)

This amendment adds the definition of population of a territorial unit.

Amendment 6 Art. 3, par. 4, subparagraph 3 (now in Art. 3, par. 5, 3

rd

subparagraph)

This amendment, on the distinctive features of the islands and of the outermost regions, is now added to a slightly redrafted text.

Amendment 9 New Art. 7a (now new Art. 8)

This amendment provides that the Commission is to report to the European Parliament and to the Council on the implementation of this Regulation three years after its entry into force.

Amendment 10 Annex I , NUTS codes for Ceuta and Melilla

This amendment modifies the NUTS codes for the autonomous communities of Ceuta and Melilla, because of their special status, equal to the Spanish autonomous communities.

Amendment 11 Annex II, denomination of administrative units for Finland

This amendment adds the correct denomination ("maakunnat") for administrative units

in Finland.

The Council text respects the spirit of the amendment and develops it even further by setting out the possibility to introduce NUTS hierarchical levels even below Level 4.

Amendment 8 Art. 5, par. 5

This amendment provides a method to determine the length of the time series after a change to the NUTS classification. The Council text respects the spirit of the amendment, but it was felt that the term "historical" ought to be removed from "historical time series", not to limit the time series which would be supplied to a very narrow class of statistical data.

3. New elements contained in the Common Position as compared with the Commission proposal

Recital 2 classifications other than NUTS

This new recital clarifies that further or other subdivisions may be used by the Member States.

Recital 16 statistical framework

This new recital defines a statistical framework by referring to the Regulation (EC) No. 322/97 on Community statistics.

Art. 5 - Amendments to the NUTS classification

The substantial redrafting of this Article defines more clearly the events which may cause an amendment of the NUTS classification and the procedure to follow to amend

it.

Annex I Amended NUTS codes for Portugal, Germany and Finland

Codes for some territorial units in Portugal and Germany were either amended or introduced, to conform to the current internal administrative subdivisions in the respective countries. The revised NUTS 2 classification of Finland was confirmed by the Commission at the Council Working Party on 16 April 2002.

4.

Conclusion

The Common Position provides both a comprehensive, legally secure framework for

the production of Community statistical data and procedures to amend the NUTS classification when certain events may require it, thus reducing the need for further legislation in this area.