on the exercise of the power to adopt delegated acts conferred on the Commission under Regulation (EC) No 1059/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 May 2003 on the establishment of a common classification of territorial units for statistics (NUTS)

REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL

on the exercise of the power to adopt delegated acts conferred on the Commission under Regulation (EC) No 1059/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 May 2003 on the establishment of a common classification of territorial units for statistics (NUTS)

1.Introduction

Regulation (EU) 2017/2391 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 December 2017 amending Regulation (EC) No 1059/2003 as regards the territorial typologies (Tercet) aligned the powers conferred on the Commission by Regulation (EC) No 1059/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 May 2003 on the establishment of a common classification of territorial units for statistics (NUTS) with the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU).

Regulation (EC) No 1059/2003 confers on the Commission the power to adopt delegated acts in accordance with Article 7a to amend its Annex II (Article 3(4)) and the list of LAU in its Annex III (Article 4(1)) on the basis of the changes in the administrative units that have been communicated to it by the Member State concerned in accordance with Article 5(1). Furthermore, Article 5(4) empowers the Commission to adopt delegated acts in accordance with Article 7a to amend the NUTS classification (Annex I) referred to in the first subparagraph of Article 5(4) on the basis of the changes in the territorial units that have been communicated to it by the Member State concerned in accordance with Article 5(1).

2.Legal Basis

Under Article 7a(2) of Regulation (EC) No 1059/2003, the power to adopt delegated acts is conferred for a period of 5 years from 18 January 2018. This power is to be tacitly extended for periods of 5 years unless the European Parliament or the Council objects. The same paragraph requires the Commission to draw up a report on the delegation of power not later than 9 months before the end of the 5-year period.

This report fulfils that obligation.

3.Exercise of the Delegation

Since Regulation (EU) 2017/2391 entered into force, the Commission has adopted only Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2019/1755 .

That act amended the NUTS classification on the basis of the changes in the territorial and administrative units that were communicated to the Commission by Belgium, Estonia, France, Croatia, Italy and the United Kingdom in accordance with Article 5(4) of the Regulation.

When preparing the Delegated Regulation, the Commission consulted in writing the directors of sectoral and environmental statistics and accounts in March 2019 and the Expert Group ‘National Statistical Institutes of the European Statistical System’ in June 2019. It informed the Parliament and the Council of all expert group consultations and sent them all relevant documents promptly and in due form.

The Commission adopted the Delegated Regulation on 8 August 2019 and notified the Parliament and the Council, neither of which objected within the standard 2‑month period. Delegated Regulation 2019/1755 entered into force on 13 November 2019.

4.Conclusion

The Commission has exercised its delegated powers correctly and invites the European Parliament and the Council to take note of this report.

The Commission considers that it should continue to have the delegated powers pursuant to Regulation (EC) No 1059/2003, as it may need to adopt delegated acts in the future to amend the annexes to the Regulation on the basis of changes in the territorial and administrative units communicated to it by Member States.