14. REGIONAL STATISTICS
(23667)
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Draft Regulation on the establishment of a common classification
of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS).
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| Legal base: | Article 285 EC; co-decision; qualified majority voting
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| Department: | Office for National Statistics
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| Basis of consideration: | SEM of 12 February 2003
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| Previous Committee Report: | HC 152-xxxviii (2001-02), paragraph 36 (16 October 2002)
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| To be discussed in Council: | Not applicable
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| Committee's assessment: | Politically important
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| Committee's decision: | Cleared (decision reported on 16 October 2002)
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Background
14.1 NUTS (Nomenclature of Units for Territorial Statistics)
is a classification of geographical areas within the EU for producing
comparable regional statistics. The NUTS system uses criteria
to subdivide each Member State into a series of areas to correspond
with one of five NUTS levels. The highest is NUTS level 1, which
broadly corresponds to standard regions in the UK. The most detailed
is NUTS level 5, which corresponds to individual wards. Other
NUTS levels refer to groups of local authorities and individual
counties. NUTS is the basis for EU regional statistics, but also
has a wider importance because it is used when determining eligibility
for Structural Funds and State Aid.
14.2 In 2001 the Commission presented a draft Regulation
to provide a legal base for the breakdown of European statistics,
to fix the current breakdown of regions for a number of years
and define clear rules for future amendments. In October 2002
we cleared the latest text of the draft Regulation[24],
but we asked the Financial secretary to the Treasury (Ruth Kelly)
for an explanation of what the Government's intention is for the
Regulation's use in relation to Gibraltar.
The Minister's response
14.3 In her SEM the Minister draws our attention to the
preamble to the Regulation, which includes the following: "The
NUTS classification is restricted to the economic territory of
the Member States and does not provide complete coverage of the
territory to which the Treaty establishing the European Union
applies. Its use for community purposes will therefore need to
be assessed on a case by case basis."
14.4 The Minister continues by saying:
"Hence as there has been agreement to the use of the Regulation
on a case by case basis (where part of the European Union is not
part of its economic territory ie Gibraltar) the Government will
continue to interpret this as meaning Gibraltar is a de facto
NUTS2 area."
14.5 But she adds:
"The Government of Gibraltar is dissatisfied
that they are not formally covered by the Regulation but the UK
Government as with other EU member states has to abide by the
1991 council Decision that defines the economic territory of the
EU."
Conclusion
14.6 We thank the Minister for this explanation. We
note the Government of Gibraltar's reservations about the Regulation
but also note the UK Government's intention as to how in fact
the Regulation will be applied to Gibraltar.
24 See
headnote. Back
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