Regulation (EC) No 176/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 February 2008 amending Regulation (EC) No 1059/2003 on the establishment of a common classification of territorial units for statistics (NUTS) by reason of the accession of Bulgaria and Romania to the European Union

of 20 February 2008

amending Regulation (EC) No 1059/2003 on the establishment of a common classification of territorial units for statistics (NUTS) by reason of the accession of Bulgaria and Romania to the European Union

Preamble

THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular Article 285(1) thereof,

Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,

Having regard to the Opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee ¹ ,

After consulting the Committee of the Regions,

Acting in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 251 of the Treaty ² ,

Whereas:

(1) Regulation (EC) No 1059/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council ³ constitutes the legal framework for regional classification for the purpose of enabling the collection, compilation and dissemination of harmonised regional statistics in the Community.

(2) All Member States' statistics transmitted to the Commission broken down by territorial units should use the NUTS classification, where applicable.

(3) It is necessary to adapt the Annexes to Regulation (EC) No 1059/2003 to take into account the accession of Bulgaria and Romania to the European Union.

(4) Since the objective of this Regulation, namely the creation of common statistical standards that permit the production of harmonised data, cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States and can therefore be better achieved at Community level, the Community may adopt measures, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity as set out in Article 5 of the Treaty. In accordance with the principle of proportionality, as set out in that Article, this Regulation does not go beyond what is necessary to achieve that objective.

(5) Regulation (EC) No 1059/2003 should therefore be amended accordingly,

HAVE ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:

Article 1

Regulation (EC) No 1059/2003 is hereby amended as follows:

1. Annex I shall be amended in accordance with the text shown in Annex I to this Regulation;

2. Annex II shall be amended in accordance with the text shown in Annex II to this Regulation;

3. Annex III shall be amended in accordance with the text shown in Annex III to this Regulation.

Article 2

This Regulation shall enter into force the day following its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union .

Final provisions

This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States. Done at Strasbourg, 20 February 2008. For the European Parliament The President H.-G. PÖTTERING For the Council The President J. LENARČIČ

¹ OJ C 175, 27.7.2007, p. 13 .

² Opinion of the European Parliament of 4 September 2007 (not yet published in the Official Journal) and Council Decision of 21 January 2008.

³ OJ L 154, 21.6.2003, p. 1 . Regulation as last amended by Commission Regulation (EC) No 105/2007 ( OJ L 39, 10.2.2007, p. 1 ).

Annex I to Regulation (EC) No 1059/2003 is amended as follows:

Annex II to Regulation (EC) No 1059/2003 is amended as follows:

1. the following is inserted in the paragraph referring to NUTS level 3 between Belgium and the Czech Republic: ‘for Bulgaria “ Области (Oblasti)”,’;

2. the following is inserted in the paragraph referring to NUTS level 3 between Hungary and the Slovak Republic: ‘for Romania “ Judeţe ”,’.

Annex III to Regulation (EC) No 1059/2003 is amended as follows:

1. the following is inserted between Belgium and the Czech Republic: ‘for Bulgaria “ Общини (Obshtini)”,’;

2. the following is inserted between Portugal and Slovenia: ‘for Romania “ Municipii, Oraşe, Comune ”,’.

Footnotes

1. . ↩ ↩²

2. Opinion of the European Parliament of 4 September 2007 (not yet published in the Official Journal) and Council Decision of 21 January 2008. ↩ ↩²

3. . Regulation as last amended by Commission Regulation (EC) No 105/2007 (). ↩ ↩²