COMMISSION REGULATION (EU) No 31/2011
of 17 January 2011
amending annexes to Regulation (EC) No 1059/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the establishment of a common classification of territorial units for statistics (NUTS)
THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION,
Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,
Having regard to 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), and in particular Article 5(4) thereof,
Whereas:
(1)
Regulation (EC) No 1059/2003 constitutes the legal framework for the regional classification in order to enable the collection, compilation and dissemination of harmonised regional statistics in the Union.
(2)
The Annexes to Regulation (EC) No 1059/2003 list the territorial units to be used for statistics.
(3)
In accordance with the provisions in Article 5(4) of Regulation (EC) No 1059/2003, amendments to the NUTS classification should be adopted in the second half of the calendar year not more frequently than every three years.
(4)
According to the information provided to the Commission, the administrative territorial division has changed in several Member States.
(5)
Regulation (EC) No 1059/2003 should therefore be amended accordingly.
(6)
The measures provided for in this Regulation are in accordance with the opinion of the European Statistical System Committee,
HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:
Article 1
The Annexes to Regulation (EC) No 1059/2003 are replaced by the text in the Annex to this Regulation.
Article 2
This Regulation shall apply, with regard to the transmission of data to the Commission (Eurostat), from 1 January 2012.
Article 3
This Regulation shall enter into force on the 20th day following its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.
This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States.
Done at Brussels, 17 January 2011.