Communication on Romania's regionalisation

15.7.2013

Question for written answer E-008653-13
to the Commission
Rule 117
Monica Luisa Macovei (PPE)

The Romanian Ministry of Regional Development has recently launched a public debate about the decentralisation process and administrative regionalisation. It appears that the Romanian authorities intend to submit to a referendum the proposed change to the structure of NUTS II regions. The Minister for Regional Development visited the Council of Regions on 3 July 2013 to present the planned changes.

In accordance with Article 5(1) of Regulation (EC) No 1059/2003, Member States must inform the Commission about changes concerning administrative units which could affect the nomenclature of territorial units for statistics:

‘The Member States shall inform the Commission of:

• (a)all changes that have occurred in administrative units, in so far as they may affect the NUTS classification, as laid down in Annex I, or the contents of Annexes II and III;
• (b)all other changes at the national level that may affect the NUTS classification, in accordance with the classification criteria laid down in Article 3.’

Has any communication been initiated between the Romanian Government and the Commission on the intended changes that may affect the NUTS classification?

OJ C 66 E, 06/03/2014