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)
Date: 2022-04-28
Institutions: European Commission, Eurostat
Subjects: EU statistics, European Commission, administrative unit, classification, data collection, delegated legislation, powers of the institutions (EU), regional statistics, statistical method, statistical nomenclature

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  EN 

   EUROPEAN COMMISSION  Brussels, 28.4.2022  COM(2022) 181 final  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)  
 
 
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) 

INTRODUCTION 

1. 
Regulation (EU) 2017/2391 of the European Parliament and of the Council1 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 Council2 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) 2019/17553. 

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 

1  OJ L 350 29.12.2017, p. 1 
2  OJ L 154 21.6.2003, p. 1 
3   OJ L 270, 24.10.2019, p. 1 

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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. 

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