Regulation (EC) No 1059/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council (4) establishes a common statistical classification of territorial units (Nomenclature of territorial units for statistics, referred to as ‘NUTS’) in order to enable the collection, compilation and dissemination of harmonised regional statistics in the European Union.
(2)
The Commission, in collaboration with the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, has defined a number of basic and most relevant territorial typologies to classify the statistical units established by Regulation (EC) No 1059/2003.
(3)
The European Statistical System already uses those typologies, in particular the degree of urbanisation, which includes the definition of cities.
(4)
The codification of the typologies is necessary in order to set out unambiguous definitions of and conditions for territorial types, ensuring their harmonised and transparent application and making the typologies stable in order to support the compilation and dissemination of European statistics. Those statistical typologies are without prejudice to the identification of specific areas for Union policies.
(5)
A system of statistical grids should apply to calculate and attribute the territorial types to the regions and areas in question, since those types depend on the population distribution and density in grid cells of one square kilometre.
(6)
A number of minor aspects of the local administrative units (LAU) should also be clarified to simplify terminology and the delivery mechanism of the lists of LAU from the Member States to the Commission (Eurostat).
(7)
In order to adapt to corresponding developments in the Member States, the power to adopt acts in accordance with Article 290 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union should be delegated to the Commission in respect of amending, in accordance with the information communicated by Member States, the NUTS classification in Annex I, the list of existing administrative units in Annex II and the list of LAU in Annex III to Regulation (EC) No 1059/2003. It is of particular importance that the Commission carry out appropriate consultations during its preparatory work, including at expert level, and that those consultations be conducted in accordance with the principles laid down in the Interinstitutional Agreement of 13 April 2016 on Better Law-Making (5). In particular, to ensure equal participation in the preparation of delegated acts, the European Parliament and the Council receive all documents at the same time as Member States' experts, and their experts systematically have access to meetings of Commission expert groups dealing with the preparation of delegated acts.
(8)
In order to ensure uniform conditions for the implementation of this Regulation, implementing powers should be conferred on the Commission in respect of the application of territorial typologies and the time series the Member States are to transmit to the Commission in case of any amendment to the NUTS classification. Those powers should be exercised in accordance with Regulation (EU) No 182/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council (6).
(9)
Since the objective of this Regulation, namely the harmonisation of regional classification, cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States but can rather be better achieved at Union level, the Union may adopt measures, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity as set out in Article 5 of the Treaty on European Union. In accordance with the principle of proportionality, as set out in that Article, this Regulation does not go beyond what is necessary in order to achieve that objective.
(10)
Regulation (EC) No 1059/2003 should therefore be amended accordingly,
